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LIBRA.RV 

OF   THB 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

OIK  T  (  >K 


Received 

Accession  No . 


.  ,89tt 

Class  No. 


GREATER  BRITAIN, 


A   RECORD   OF  TRAVEL 


ENGLISH-SPEAKING  COUNTRIES 


DURING  1866-7. 


CHARLES  WENT  WORTH  DILKE. 


TWO    VOLUMES  IN  ONE. 

WITH   MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO. 
1869. 


TO 


MY   FA  T.HE  R 


THIS  BOOK. 

C.  W   D. 


PREFACE. 


IN  1866  and  1867,  I  followed  England  round  the  world: 
everywhere  I  was  in  English-speaking,  or  in  English-gov- 
erned lands.  If  I  remarked  that  climate,  soil,  manners  of 
life,  that  mixture  with  other  peoples  had  modified  the  blood, 
I  saw,  too,  that  in  essentials  the  race  was  always  one. 

The  idea  which  in  all  the  length  of  my  travels  has  been 
at  once  my  fellow  and  my  guide — a  key  wherewith  to  un- 
lock the  hidden  things  of  strange  new  lands — is  a  concep- 
tion, however  imperfect,  of  the  grandeur  of  our  race,  already 
girding  the  earth,  which  it  is  destined,  perhaps,  eventually 
to  overspread. 

In  America,  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  being  fused 
together,  but  they  are  run  into  an  English  mould  :  Alfred's 
laws  and  Chaucer's  tongue  are  theirs  whether  they  would 
or  no.  There  are  men  who  say  that  Britain  in  her  age  will 
claim  the  glory  of  having  planted  greater  Englands  across 
the  seas.  They  fail  to  perceive  that  she  has  done  more 
than  found  plantations  of  her  own — that  she  has  imposed 
her  institutions  upon  the  offshoots  of  Germany,  of  Ireland, 
of  Scandinavia,  and  of  Spain.  Through  America,  England 
is  speaking  to  the  world. 

1*  (v) 


vi  PREFACE. 

Sketches  of  Saxondom  may  be  of  interest  even  upon  hum- 
bler grounds  :  the  development  of  the  England  of  Elizabeth 
is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  Britain  of  Victoria,  but  in  half  the 
habitable  globe.  If  two  small  islands  are  by  courtesy  styled 
''Great,"  America,  Australia,  India,  must  form  a  Greater 
Britain. 

C.  W.  D. 

76  SLOANE  STREET,  S.  W. 
1st  November,  1868. 


CONTENTS 


OF 


THE  FIRST   VOLUME. 


PART  I. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    VIRGINIA 3 

II.    THE    NEGRO 16 

III.  THE   SOUTH .21 

IV.  THE   EMPIRE    STATE 33 

V.    CAMBRIDGE   COMMENCEMENT  .  .  .  .43 

VI.    CANADA               .......  55 

VII.    UNIVERSITY   OF   MICHIGAN    .  .  .  .  .69 

VIII.    THE   PACIFIC   RAILROAD    .            .            .            .            .  78 

IX.    OMPHALISM 86 

X.    LETTER   PROM   DENVER 91 

XL    RED   INDIA 102 

XII.    COLORADO 110 

XIII.    ROCKY   MOUNTAINS 115 

XIV.    BRIGHAM   YOUNG 122 

XV.    MORMONDOM 121 

XVI.    WESTERN   EDITORS 131 

XVII.    UTAH               .            .            .....'.  144 

XVIII.    NAMELESS  ALPS 152 

XIX.    VIRGINIA  CITY       . 166 

XX.    EL   DORADO        .  .  .  .  .  .  .119 

(Vii) 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXI.    LYNCH    LAW         .  .  .  .  .  .  .190 

XXII.    GOLDEN   CITY  ......  207 

XXIII.  LITTLE    CHINA  '. 218 

XXIV.  CALIFORNIA    .......  227 

XXV.    MEXICO 233 

XXVI.    REPUBLICAN    OR    DEMOCRAT      ....  239 

XXVII.    BROTHERS 249 

XXVIII.   AMERICA  .  ...          258 

PART  II. 

I.    PITCAIRN   ISLAND      .  .  .  .  .  .  .271 

II.    HOKITIKA  278 

III.  POLYNESIANS 293 

IV.  PAREWANUI   PAH  ......  299 

V.    THE   MAORIES 319 

VI.    THE    TWO   FLIES 328 

VII.   THE   PACIFIC    ....  ...    334 

APPENDIX. 

A  MAORI  DINNER  .  .  339 


CONTENTS 


OF 


THE  SECOND  VOLUME. 


^  PART  III. 

CHAPTEE  PAGE 

I.    SYDNEY              ........  *l 

II.    RIVAL   COLONIES           .            .            .            .            .            .  15 

III.  VICTORIA 22 

IV.  SQUATTER   ARISTOCRACY 38 

V.    COLONIAL   DEMOCRACY 44 

VI.    PROTECTION          .......  55 

VII.    LABOR 65 

VIII.    WOMAN 75 

IX.    VICTORIAN    PORTS 79 

X.    TASMANIA 83 

XI.    CONFEDERATION .94 

XII.    ADELAIDE               .......  98 

XIII.  TRANSPORTATION     .  .  .  .  .  .  .109 

XIV.  AUSTRALIA 123 

XV.    COLONIES 130 

PART  IY. 

I.    MARITIME   CEYLON       .            .            .            .            .            .  141 

II.    KANDY 154 

III.  MADRAS  TO  CALCUTTA 161 

IV.  BENARES    .                   .          .     .  171 

(ix) 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

V.    CASTE       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .178 

VI.    MOHAMMEDAN    CITIES    .  .  ..  .  .    191 

VII.    SIMLA 202 

VIII.    COLONIZATION        .  .  .  .  .  .  .21*7 

ix.  THE  "  GAZETTE"   .    .    .    .    .    .   224 

x.  UMRITSUR  ........  233 

XI.    LAHORE 245 

XII.   OUR  INDIAN   ARMY         .  .  .  .  .  .249 

xiii.  RUSSIA 255 

XIV.    NATIVE    STATES 267 

XV.    SCINDE     .            .            ...            .            .            .            .  280 

XVI.    OVERLAND   ROUTES 289 

XVII.    BOMBAY  ........  298 

XVIII.    THE   MOHURRUM   .  .  .  .  .  ,  .305 

XIX.    ENGLISH   LEARNING 312 

XX.    INDIA 320 

XXI.    DEPENDENCIES 333 

XXII.    FRANCE   IN   THE   EAST 339 

XXIII.    THE  ENGLISH  .                                                                        .  346 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

VIEW  FROM  THE  BULLER        .         .         .     Frontispiece. 

A  CINGHALESE   GENTLEMAN  .  .  Frontispiece. 

PROFILE  OF  "JOE  SMITH"      .  \  ^^ 

FULL  FACE  OF  "  JOE  SMITH"      ....          ) 

PORTER  ROCKWELL 154 

FRIDAY'S  STATION — VALLEY  OF  LAKE  TAHOE      .         .  176 

TEAMING  UP  THE  GRADE  AT  SLIPPERY  FORD,  IN  THE 

SIERRA 178 

VIEW  ON  THE  AMERICAN  RIVER THE  PLACE  WHERE 

GOLD  WAS  FIRST  FOUND  .  .  .  .  180 

THE    BRIDAL   VEIL   FALL,    YOSEMITE    VALLEY     . 

EL   CAPITAN,    YOSEMITE    VALLEY 

MAPS. 

ATLANTIC   AND   PACIFIC   RAILROAD  .            .            .            .78 

LEAVEN  WORTH   TO   SALT   LAKE   CITY  .            .                        .             92 

SALT   LAKE   CITY   TO   SAN   FRANCISCO  .            .            .            .158 

NEW    ZEALAND    .  278 


THE    OLD    AND    THE    NEW:    BUSH    SCENERY — COLLINS 

STREET  EAST,  MELBOURNE 24 

GOVERNOR  DAVEY'S  PROCLAMATION    ....         86 

MAPS. 

AUSTRALIA   AND   TASMANIA      ...  .       16 

OVERLAND   ROUTES 290 

(xi) 


I. 

AMERICA. 


GREATER  BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER   I. 

VIRGINIA. 

FROM  the  bows  of  the  steamer  Saratoga,  on  the  20th 
June,  1866, 1  caught  sight  of  the  low  works  of  Fort 
Monroe,  as,  threading  her  way  between  the  sand- 
banks of  Capes  Charles  and  Henry,  the  ship  pressed 
on,  under  sail  and  steam,  to  enter  Chesapeake  Bay. 

Our  sudden  arrival  amid  shoals  of  sharks  and  king- 
fish,  the  keeping  watch  for  flocks  of  canvas-back 
ducks,  gave  us  enough  and  to  spare  of  idle  work. till 
we  fully  sighted  the  Yorktown  peninsula,  overgrown 
with  ancient  memories — ancient  for  America.  Three 
towns  of  lost  grandeur,  or  their  ruins,  stand  there  still. 
Williamsburg,  the  former  capital,  graced  even  to  our 
time  by  the  palaces  where  once  the  royal  governors 
held  more  than  regal  state;  Yorktown,  where  Corn- 
wallis  surrendered  to  the  continental  troops;  James- 
town, the  earliest  settlement,  founded  in  1607,  thirteen 
years  before  old  Governor  Winthrop  fixed  the  site  of 
Plymouth,  Massachusetts. 

A  bump  against  the  pier  of  Fort  Monroe  soon 
roused  us  from  our  musings,  and  we  found  ourselves 
invaded  by  a  swarm  of  stalwart  negro  troopers,  clothed 
in  the  cavalry  uniform  of  the  United  States,  who 

(3) 


4  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

boarded  us  for  the  mails.  ISTot  a  white  man  save  those 
we  brought  was  to  be  seen  upon  the  pier,  and  the  blaz- 
ing sun  made  me  thankful  that  I  had  declined  an  of- 
fered letter  to  Jeff.  Davis. 

Pushing  off  again  into  the  stream,  we  ran  the  gant- 
let of  the  Kip-Raps  passage,  and  made  for  Norfolk, 
having  on  our  left  the  many  exits  of  the  Dismal 
Swamp  Canal.  Crossing  Hampton  Roads — a  grand 
bay  with  pleasant  grassy  shores,  destined  one  day  to 
become  the  best  known,  as  by  nature  it  is  the  noblest, 
of  Atlantic  ports — we  nearly  ran  upon  the  wrecks  of 
the  Federal  frigates  Cumberland  and  Congress,  sunk  by 
the  rebel  ram  Merrimae  in  the  first  great  naval  action 
of  the  war;  but  soon  after,  by  a  sort  of  poetic  justice, 
we  almost  drifted  into  the  black  hull  of  the  Merrimae 
herself.  Great  gangs  of  negroes  were  laboring  laugh- 
ingly at  the  removal,  by  blasting,  of  the  sunken  ships. 

When  we  were  securely  moored  at  Norfolk  pier,  I 
set  off  upon  an  inspection  of  the  second  city  of  Vir- 
ginia. Again  not  a  white  man  was  to  be  seen,  but 
hundreds  of  negroes  were  working  in  the  heat,  build- 
ing, repairing,  road-making,  and  happily  chattering 
the  while.  At  last,  turning  a  corner,  I  came  on  a 
hotel,  and,  as  a  consequence,  on  a  bar  and  its  crowd  of 
swaggering  whites — "Johnny  Rebs"  all,  you  might 
see  by  the  breadth  of  their  brims,  for  across  the  Atlan- 
tic a  broad  brim  denotes  less  the  man  of  peace  than 
the  ex-member  of  a  Southern  guerrilla  band,  Morgan's, 
Mosby's,  or  Stuart's.  ]STo  Southerner  will  wear  the 
Yankee  "stove-pipe"  hat;  a  Panama  or  Palmetto  for 
him,  he  says,  though  he  keeps  to  the  long  black  coat 
that  rules  from  Maine  to  the  Rio  Grande. 

These  Southerners  were  all  alike — all  were  upright, 
tall,  and  heavily  moustached ;  all  had  long  black  hair 
and  glittering  eyes,  and  I  looked  instinctively  for  the 


VIRGINIA.  5 

baldric  and  rapier.  It  needed  no  second  glance  to  as- 
sure me  that  as  far  as  the  men  of  Norfolk  were  con- 
cerned, the  saying  of  our  Yankee  skipper  was  not  far 
from  the  truth:  "The  last  idea  that  enters  the  mind  of 
a  Southerner  is  that  of  doing  work." 

Strangers  are  scarce  in  Norfolk,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  I  found  an  excuse  for  entering  into  conversa- 
tion with  the  "  citizens."  My  first  question  was  not 
received  with  much  cordiality  by  my  new  acquaint- 
ances. "How  do  the  negroes  work?  Wall,  we  spells 
nigger  with  two  4g's,'  I  reckon."  (Virginians,  I  must 
explain,  are  used  to  "reckon"  as  much  as  are  New Eng- 
landers  to  "guess,"  while  Western  men " calculate"  as 
often  as  they  cease  to  swear.)  "How  does  the  niggers 
work  ?  Wall,  niggers  is  darned  fools,  certain,  but  they 
ain't  quite  sich  fools  as  to  work  while  the  Yanks  will 
feed  'em.  No,  sir,  not  quite  sich  fools  as  that." 
Hardly  deeming  it  wise  to  point  to  the  negroes  work- 
ing in  the  sun-blaze  within  a  hundred  yards,  while 
we  sat  rocking  ourselves  in  the  veranda  of  the  inn,  I 
changed  my  tack,  and  asked  whether  things  were  set- 
tling down  in  Norfolk.  This  query  soon  led  my  friends 
upon  the  line  I  wanted  them  to  take,  and  in  five  min- 
utes we  were  well  through  politics,  and  plunging  into 
the  very  war.  "You're  a  Britisher.  Now,- all  that 
they  tell  you's  darned  lies.  We're  just  as  secesh  as 
we  ever  was,  only  so  many's  killed  that  we  can't  fight 
— that's  all,  I  reckon."  "We  ain't  going  to  fight  the 
North  and  West  again,"  said  an  ex-colonel  of  rebel 
infantry;  "next  time  we  fight,  'twill  be  us  and  the 
West  against  the  Yanks.  We'll  keep  the  old  flag  then, 
and  be  darned  to  them."  "  If  it  hadn't  been  for  the 
politicians,  we  shouldn't  have  seceded  at  all,  I  reckon: 
we  should  just  have  kept  the  old  flag  and  the  consti- 
tution, and  the  Yanks  would  have  seceded  from  us. 

1* 


6  GEE ATE R   BRITAIN. 

Eeckon  we'd  have  let  'em  go."  "Wall,  boys,  s'pose 
we  liquor?"  closed  in  the  colonel,  shooting  out  his  old 
quid,  and  filling  in  with  another.  "We'd  have  fought 
for  a  lifetime  if  the  cussed  Southerners  hadn't  deserted 
like  they  did."  I  asked  who  these  "Southerners" 
were  to  whom  such  disrespect  was  being  shown. 
"You  didn't  think  Virginia  was  a  Southern  State  over 
in  Britain,  did  you?  'cause  Virginia  is  a  border  State, 
sir.  We  didn't  go  to  secede  at  all;  it  was  them  blasted 
Southerners  that  brought  it  on  us.  First  they  wouldn't 
give  a  command  to  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  then  they 
made  us  do  all  the  fighting  for  'em,  and  then,  when 
the  pinch  came,  they  left  us  in  the  lurch.  Why,  sir,  I 
saw  three  Mississippi  regiments  surrender  without  a 
"biow — yes,  sir:  that's  right  down  good  whisky;  jess 
you  sample  it."  Here  the  steam-whistle  of  the  Sara- 
toga sounded  with  its  deep  bray.  "  Reckon  you'll  have 
to  hurry  up  to  make  connections,"  said  one  of  my  new 
friends,  and  I  hurried  off,  not  without  a  fear  lest  some 
of  the  group  should  shoot  after  me,  to  avenge  the  af- 
front of  my  quitting  them  before  the  mixing  of  the 
drinks.  They  were  but  a  pack  of  "  mean  whites," 
"  North  Carolina  crackers,"  but  their  views  were  those 
which  I  found  dominant  in  all  ranks  at  Richmond,  and 
up  the  country  in  Virginia. 

After  all, the  Southern  planters  are  not  "The  South," 
which  for  political  purposes  is  composed  of  the  "mean 
whites,"  of  the  Irish  of  the  towns,  and  of  the  South- 
western men — Missourians,  Kentuckians,  and  Texan s 
— fiercely  anti-Northern,  without  being  in  sentiment 
what  we  should  call  Southern,  certainly  not  repre- 
sentatives of  the  "  Southern  Chivalry."  The  "  mean 
whites,"  or  "  poor  trash,"  are  the  whites  who  are  not 
planters — members  of  the  slaveholding  race  who  never 
held  a  slave — white  men  looked  down  upon  by  the  ne- 


VIRGINIA.  7 

groes.  It  is  a  necessary  result  of  the  despotic  govern- 
ment of  one  race  by  another  that  the  poor  members  of 
the  dominant  people  are  universally  despised:  the 
"destitute  Europeans"  of  Bombay,  the  "white  loaf- 
ers" of  the  Punjaub,  are  familiar  cases.  Where  slavery 
exists,  the  "poor  trash"  class  must  inevitably  be  both 
large  and  wretched :  primogeniture  is  necessary  to  keep 
the  plantations  sufficiently  great  to  allow  for  the  pay- 
ment of  overseers  and  the  supporting  in  luxury  of  the 
planter  family,  and  younger  sons  and  their  descendants 
are  not  only  left  destitute,  but  debarred  from  earning 
their  bread  by  honest  industry,  for  in  a  slave  country 
labor  is  degrading. 

The  Southern  planters  were  gentlemen,  possessed  of 
many  aristocratic  virtues,  along  with  every  aristocratic 
vice ;  but  to  each  planter  there  were  nine  "  mean 
whites,"  who,  though  grossly  ignorant,  full  of  inso- 
lence, given  to  the  use  of  the  knife  and  pistol  upon  the 
slightest  provocation,  were,  until  the  election  of  Lin- 
coln to  the  presidency,  as  completely  the  rulers  of 
America  as  they  were  afterward  the  leaders  of  the 
rebellion. 

At  sunset  we  started  up  the  James  on  our  way  to 
City  Point  and  Eichmond,  sailing  almost  between  the 
very  masts  of  the  famous  rebel  privateer  the  Florida, 
and  seeing  her  as  she  lay  under  the  still,  gray  waters. 
She  was  cut  out  from  a  Brizilian  port,  and  when  claimed 
by  the  imperial  government,  was  to  have  been  at  once 
surrendered.  While  the  dispatches  were  on  their  way 
to  Norfolk,  she  was  run  into  at  her  moorings  by  a  Fed- 
eral gunboat,  and  filled  and  sank  directly.  Friends  of 
the  Confederacy  have  hinted  that  the  collision  was 
strangely  opportune ;  nevertheless,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  commander  of  the  gunboat  was  dismissed  the 
navy  for  his  carelessness. 


8  GEE  ATE  R   BRITAIN. 

The  twilight  was  beyond  description  lovely.  The 
change  from  the  auks  and  ice-birds  of  the  Atlantic  to 
the  blue-birds  and  robins  of  Virginia  was  not  more 
sudden  than  that  from  winter  to  tropical  warmth  and 
sensuous  indolence ;  but  the  scenery,  too,  of  the  river 
is  beautiful  in  its  very  changelessness.  Those  who  can 
see  no  beauty  but  in  boldness  might  call  the  James  as 
monotonous  as  the  lower  Loire. 

After  weeks  of  bitter  cold,  warm  evenings  favor 
meditation.  The  soft  air,  the  antiquity  of  the  forest, 
the  languor  of  the  sunset  breeze,  all  dispose  to  dream 
and  sleep.  That  oak  has  seen  Powhatan  ;  the  found- 
ers of  Jamestown  may  have  pointed  at  that  grand  old 
sycamore.  In  this  drowsy  humor,  we  sighted  the  far- 
famed  batteries  of  Newport  News,  and  turning-in  to 
berth  or  hammock,  lay  all  night  at  City  Point,  near 
Petersburg. 

A  little  before  sunrise  we  weighed  again,  and  sought 
a  passage  through  the  tremendous  Confederate  "  ob- 
structions." Rows  of  iron  skeletons,  the  frame-works 
of  the  wheels  of  sunken  steamers,  showed  above  the 
stream,  casting  gaunt  shadows  westward,  and  varied 
only  by  here  and  there  a  battered  smoke-stack  or  a 
spar.  The  whole  of  the  steamers  that  had  plied  upon 
the  James  and  the  canals  before  the  war  were  lying 
here  in  rows,  sunk  lengthwise  along  the  stream.  Two 
in  the  middle  of  each  row  had  been  raised  to  let  the 
government  vessels  pass,  but  in  the  heat-mist  and  faint 
light  the  navigation  was  most  difficult.  For  five  and 
twenty  miles  the  rebel  forts  were  as  thick  as  the  hills 
and  points  allowed ;  yet,  in  spite  of  booms  and  bars, 
of  sunken  ships,  of  batteries  and  torpedoes,  the  Federal 
monitors  once  forced  their  way  to  Fort  Darling  in  the 
outer  works  of  Richmond.  I  remembered  these  things 
a  few  weeks  later,  when  General  Grant's  first  words  to 


VIRGINIA.  9 

me  at  Washington  were  :  "  Glad  to  meet  you.  What 
have  you  seen  ?"  "  The  Capitol."  "  Go  at  once  and 
see  the  Monitors."  He  afterward  said  to  me,  in  words 
that  photograph  not  only  the  Monitors,  but  Grant: 
"You  can  batter  away  at  those  things  fora  month,  and 
do  no  good." 

At  Dutch  Gap  we  came  suddenly  upon  a  curious 
scene.  The  river  flowed  toward  us  down  a  long,  straight 
reach,  bounded  by  a  lofty  hill  crowned  with  tremen- 
dous earthworks ;  but  through  a  deep  trench  or  cleft, 
hardly  fifty  yards  in  length,  upon  our  right,  we  could 
see  the  stream  running  with  violence  in  a  direction 
parallel  with  our  course.  The  hills  about  the  gully 
were  hollowed  out  into  caves  and  bomb-proofs,  evi- 
dently meant  as  shelters  from  vertical  fire,  but  the 
rough  graves  of  a  vast  cemetery  showed  that  the  pro- 
tection was  sought  in  vain.  Forests  of  crosses  of  un- 
painted  wood  rose  upon  every  acre  of  flat  ground.  On 
the  peninsula,  all  but  made  an  island  by  the  cleft,  was 
a  grove  of  giant  trees,  leafless,  barkless,  dead,  and 
blanched  by  a  double  change  in  the  level  of  the  stream. 
There  is  no  sight  so  sad  as  that  of  a  drowned  forest, 
with  a  turkey-buzzard  on  each  bough.  On  the  bank 
upon  our  left  was  an  iron  scaffold,  eight  or  ten  stories 
high, — "Butler's Lookout,"  as  the  cleft  was  "Butler's 
Dutch  Gap  Canal."  The  canal,  unfinished  in  war,  is 
now  to  be  completed  at  State  expense  for  purposes  of 
trade. 

As  we  rounded  the  extremity  of  the  peninsula  an 
eagle  was  seen  to  light  upon  a  tree.  From  every  por- 
tion of  the  ship — main  deck,  hurricane  deck,  lower 
deck  ports — revolvers,  ready  capped  and  loaded,  were 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  bird,  which  sheered  off  un- 
harmed amid  a  storm  of  bullets.  After  this  incident, 
I  was  careful  in  my  political  discussions  with  my  ship- 


10  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

mates;  disarmament  in  the  Confederacy  had  clearly 
not  been  extended  to  private  weapons. 

The  outer  and  inner  lines  of  fortifications  passed,  we 
came  in  view  of  a  many-steepled  town,  with  domes 
and  spires  recalling  Oxford,  hanging  on  a  bank  above 
a  crimson-colored  foaming  stream.  In  ten  minutes  we 
were  alongside  the  wharf  at  Richmond,  and  in  half  an 
hour  safely  housed  in  the  "Exchange  Hotel,"  kept  by 
the  Messrs.  Carrington,  of  whom  the  father  was  a  pri- 
vate, the  son  a  colonel,  in  the  rebel  volunteers. 

The  next  day,  while  the  works  and  obstructions  on 
the  James  were  still  fresh  in  my  mind,  I  took  train  to 
Petersburg,  the  city  the  capture  of  which  by  Grant 
was  the  last  blow  struck  by  the  North  at  the  melting 
forces  of  the  Confederacy. 

The  line  showed  the  war:  here  and  there  the  track, 
torn  up  in  Northern  raids,  had  barely  been  repaired  ;  the 
bridges  were  burnt  and  broken  ;  the  rails  worn  down 
to  an  iron  thread.  The  joke  uon  board,"  as  they  say 
here  for  "in  the  train/7  was  that  the  engine-drivers 
down  the  line  are  tolerably  cute  men,  who,  when  the 
rails  are  altogether  worn  away,  understand  how  to  ago 
it  on  the  bare  wood,"  and  who  at  all  times  "know 
where  to  jump." 

From  the  window  of  the  car  we  could  see  that  in 
the  country  there  were  left  no  mules,  no  horses,  no 
roads,  no  men.  The  solitude  is  not  all  owing  to  the 
war:  in  the  whole  five  and  twenty  miles  from  Rich- 
mond to  Petersburg  there  was  before  the  war  but  a 
single  station  ;  in  New  England  your  passage-card  often 
gives  a  station  in  every  two  miles.  A  careful  look  at 
the  underwood  on  either  side  the  line  showed  that  this 
forest  is  not  primeval,  that  all  this  country  had  once 
been  plowed. 

Virginia  stands  first  among  the  States  for  natural 


VIRGINIA.  11 

advantages:  in  climate  she  is  un  equaled;  her  soil  is 
fertile ;  her  mineral  wealth  in  coal,  copper,  gold,  and 
iron  enormous,  and  well  placed;  her  rivers  good,  and 
her  great  harbor  one  of  the  best  in  the  world.  Virginia 
has  been  planted  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  and  is  as  large  as  England,  yet  has  a  free  popu- 
lation of  only  a  million.  In  every  kind  of  production 
she  is  miserably  inferior  to  Missouri  or  Ohio,  in  most, 
inferior  also  to  the  infant  States  of  Michigan  and  Illi- 
nois. Only  a  quarter  of  her  soil  is  under  cultivation, 
to  half  that  of  poor,  starved  New  England,  and  the 
mines  are  deserted  which  were  worked  by  the  very 
Indians  who  were  driven  from  the  land  as  savages  a 
hundred  years  ago. 

There  is  no  surer  test  of  the  condition  of  a  country 
than  the  state  of  its  highways.  In  driving  on  the  main 
roads  round  Richmond,  in  visiting  the  scene  of  Mc- 
Clellan's  great  defeat  on  the  Chickahominy  at  Mechan- 
icsville  and  Malvern  Hill,  I  myself,  and  an  American 
gentleman  who  was  with  me,  had  to  get  out  and  lay 
the  planks  upon  the  bridges,  and  then  sit  upon  them, 
to  keep  them  down  while  the  black  coachman  drove 
across.  The  best  roads  in  Virginia  are  but  ill  kept 
"corduroys;"  but,  bad  as  are  these,  "plank  roads" 
over  which  artillery  have  passed,  knocking  out  every 
other  plank,  are  worse  by  far;  yet  such  is  the  main 
road  from  Richmond  toward  the  west. 

There  is  not  only  a  scarcity  of  roads,  but  of  railroads. 
A  comparison  of  the  railway  system  of  Illinois  and 
Indiana  with  the  two  lines  of  Kentucky  or  the  one  of 
"Western  Virginia  or  Louisiana,  is  a  comparison  of  the 
South  with  the  North,  of  slavery  with  freedom.  Vir 
ginia  shows  already  the  decay  of  age,  but  is  blasted  by 
slavery  rather  than  by  war. 

Passing  through  Petersburg,  the  streets  of   which 


12  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

were  gay  with  the  feathery-brown  blooms  of  the  Vene- 
tian sumach,  but  almost  deserted  by  human  beings, 
who  have  not  returned  to  the  city  since  they  were 
driven  out  by  the  shot  and  shell  of  which  their  houses 
show  the  scars,  we  were  soon  in  the  rebel  works. 
There  are  sixty  miles  of  these  works  in  all,  line  within 
line,  three  deep:  alternations  of  sand-pits  and  sand- 
heaps,  with  here  and  there  a  tree-trunk  pierced  for 
riflemen,  and  everywhere  a  double  row  of  chevaux  de 
/rise.  The  forts  nearest  this  point  were  named  by  their 
rebel  occupants  Fort  Hell  and  Fort  Damnation.  Tre- 
mendous works,  but  it  needed  no  long  interview  with 
Grant  to  understand  their  capture.  I  had  not  been  ten 
minutes  in  his  office  at  Washington  before  I  saw  that 
the  secret  of  his  unvarying  success  lay  in  his  unflinch- 
ing determination :  there  is  pith  in  the  American  con- 
ceit which  reads  in  his  initials,  "TJ.  S.  G.,"  "uncondi- 
tional-surrender Grant." 

The  works  defending  Richmond,  hardly  so  strong  as 
those  of  Petersburg,  were  attacked  in  a  novel  manner 
in  the  third  year  of  the  war.  A  strong  body  of  Fed- 
eral cavalry  on  a  raid,  unsupported  by  infantry  or  guns, 
came  suddenly  by  night  upon  the  outer  lines  of  Rich- 
mond on  the  west.  Something  had  led  them  to  be- 
lieve that  the  rebels  were  not  in  force,  and  with  the 
strange  aimless  daring  that  animated  both  parties 
during  the  rebellion,  they  rode  straight  in  along  the 
winding  road,  unchallenged,  and  came  up  to  the  inner 
lines.  There  they  were  met  by  a  volley  which  emptied 
a  few  saddles,  and  they  retired,  without  even  stopping 
to  spike  the  guns  in  the  outer  works.  Had  they  known 
enough  of  the  troops  opposed  to  them  to  have  con- 
tinued to  advance,  they  might  have  taken  Richmond, 
and  held  it  long  enough  to  have  captured  the  rebel 
president  and  senate,  and  burned  the  great  iron-works 


VIRGINIA.  13 

and  ships.  The  whole  of  the  rebel  army  had  gone 
north,  and  even  the  home  guard  was  camped  out  on 
the  Chickahominy.  The  troops  who  fired  the  volley 
were  a  company  of  the  "iron-works  battalion,"  boys 
employed  at  the  founderies,  not  one  of  whom  had  ever 
fired  a  rifle  before  this  night.  They  confessed  them- 
selves that  "one  minute  more,  and  they'd  have  run;" 
but  the  volley  just  stopped  the  enemy  in  time. 

The  spot  where  we  first  struck  the  rebel  lines  was 
that  known  as  the  Crater — the  funnel-shaped  cavity 
formed  when  Grant  sprang  his  famous  mine:  1500 
men  are  buried  in  the  hollow  itself,  and  the  bones  of 
those  smothered  by  the  falling  earth  are  working 
through  the  soil:  5000  negro  troops  were  killed  in 
this  attack,  and  are  buried  round  the  hollow  where 
they  died,  fighting  as  gallantly  as  they  fought  every- 
where throughout  the  war.  It  is  a  singular  testimony 
to  the  continuousness  of  the  fire,  that  the  still  remain- 
ing subterranean  passages  show  that  in  countermining 
the  rebels  came  once  within  three  feet  of  the  mine,  yet 
failed  to  hear  the  working  parties.  Thousands  of  old 
army  shoes  were  lying  on  the  earth,  and  negro  boys 
were  digging  up  bullets  for  old  lead. 

Within  eighty  yards  of  the  Crater  are  the  Federal 
investing  lines,  on  which  the  trumpet-flower  of  our 
gardens  was  growing  wild  in  deep  rich  masses.  The 
negroes  told  me  not  to  gather  it,  because  they  believe 
it  scalds  the  hand.  They  call  it  "  poison  plant,"  or 
"blister  weed."  The  blue-birds  and  scarlet  tannagers 
were  playing  about  the  horn-shaped  flowers. 

Just  within  Grant's  earthworks  are  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  church,  built,  it  is  said,  with  bricks  that  were 
brought  by  the  first  colonists  from  England  in  1614. 
About  Norfolk,  about  Petersburg,  and  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley,  you  cannot  ride  twenty  miles  through  the 


14  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Virginian  forest  without  bursting  in  upon  some  glade 
containing  a  quaint  old  church,  or  a  creeper-covered 
roofless  palace  of  the  Culpeppers,  the  Randolphs,  or  the 
Scotts.  The  county  names  have  in  them  all  a  history. 
Taking  the  letter  "B"  alone,  we  have  Barbour,  Bath, 
Bedford,  Berkeley,  Boone,  Botetourt,  Braxton,  Brooke, 
Brunswick,  Buchanan,  Buckingham.  A  dozen  coun- 
ties in  the  State  are  named  from  kings  or  princes. 
The  slaveowning  cavaliers  whose  names  the  remainder 
bear  are  the  men  most  truly  guilty  of  the  late  attempt 
made  by  their  descendants  to  create  an  empire  founded 
on  disloyalty  and  oppression;  but  within  sight  of  this 
old  church  of  theirs  at  Petersburg,  thirty-three  miles 
of  Federal  outworks  stand  as  a  monument  of  how  the 
attempt  was  crushed  by  the  children  of  their  New  Eng- 
land brother-colonists. 

The  names  of  streams  and  hamlets  in  Virginia  have 
often  a  quaint  English  ring.  On  the  Potomac,  near 
Harper's  Ferry,  I  once  came  upon  "  Sir  John's  Run." 
Upon  my  asking  a  tall,  gaunt  fellow,  who  was  fishing, 
whether  this  was  the  spot  on  which  the  Knight  of 
Windsor  "  larded  the  lean  earth,"  I  got  for  sole  answer: 
"  Wall,  don't  know  'bout  that,  but  it's  a  mighty  tine 
spot  for  yellow-fin  trout."  The  entry  to  Virginia  is 
characteristic.  You  sail  between  capes  named  from 
the  sons  of  James  I.,  and  have  fronting  you  the  estu- 
aries of  two  rivers  called  after  the  King  and  the  Duke 
of  York. 

The  old  "F.  F.  V.'s,  the  first  families  of  Virginia, 
whose  founders  gave  these  monarchic  names  to  the 
rivers  and  counties  of  the  State,  are  far  off  now  in 
Texas  and  California — those,  that  is,  which  were  not 
extinct  before  the  war.  The  tenth  Lord  Fairfax  keeps 
a  tiny  ranch  near  San  Francisco;  some  of  the  chief 
Denmans  are  also  to  be  found  in  California.  In  all 


VIRGINIA.  15 

such  cases  of  which  I  heard,  the  emigration  took  place 
before  the  war;  Northern  conquest  could  not  be  made 
use  of  as  a  plea  whereby  to  escape  the  reproaches  due 
to  the  slaveowning  system.  There  is  a  stroke  of  jus- 
tice in  the  fact  that  the  Virginian  oligarchy  have  ruined 
themselves  in  ruining  their  State;  but  the  gaming  hells 
of  Farobankopolis,  as  Richmond  once  was  called,  have 
much  for  which  to  answer. 

When  the  "burnt  district"  comes  to  be  rebuilt, 
Richmond  will  be  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  At- 
lantic cities;  while  the  water-power  of  the  rapids  of 
the  James,  and  a  situation  at  the  junction  of  canal  and 
river,  secure  for  it  a  prosperous  future. 

The  superb  position  of  the  State-house  (which 
formed  the  rebel  capitol),  on  the  brow  of  a  long  hill, 
whence  it  overhangs  the  city  and  the  James,  has  in  it 
something  of  satire.  The  Parliament-house  of  George 
Washington's  own  State,  the  State-house,  contains  the 
famed  statue  set  up  by  the  general  assembly  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia  to  the  hero's  memory. 
Without  the  building  stands  the  still  more  noteworthy 
bronze  statue  of  the  first  President,  erected  jointly  by 
all  the  States  in  the  then  Union.  That  such  monu- 
ments should  overlook  the  battle-fields  of  the  war  pro- 
voked by  the  secession  from  the  Union  of  .Washing- 
ton's loved  Virginia,  is  a  fact  full  of  the  grim  irony  of 
history. 

Hollywood,  the  cemetery  of  Richmond,  is  a  place 
full  of  touching  sad  suggestion,  and  very  beautiful, 
with  deep  shades  and  rippling  streams.  During  the 
war,  there  were  hospitals  in  Richmond  for  20,000  men, 
and  "always  full,"  they  say.  The  Richmond  men 
who  were  killed  in  battle  were  buried  where  they  fell; 
but  8000  who  died  in  hospital  are  buried  here,  and 
over  them  is  placed  a  wooden  cross,  with  the  inscrip- 


16  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

tion  in  black  paint,  "Dead,  but  not  forgotten."  In 
another  spot  lie  the  Union  dead,  under  the  shadow  of 
the  flag  for  which  they  died. 

From  Monroe's  tomb  the  evening  view  is  singularly 
soft  and  calm;  the  quieter  and  calmer  for  the  drone 
in  which  are  mingled  the  trills  of  the  mocking-bird, 
the  hoarse  croaking  of  the  bull-frog,  the  hum  of  the 
myriad  fire-flies,  that  glow  like  summer  lightning 
among  the  trees,  the  distant  roar  of  the  river,  of 
which  the  rich  red  water  can  still  be  seen,  beaten  by 
the  rocks  into  a  rosy  foam. 

With  the  moment's  chillness  of  the  sunset  breeze, 
the  golden  glory  of  the  heavens  fades  into  gray,  and 
there  comes  quickly  over  them  the  solemn  blueness  of 
the  Southern  night.  Thoughts  are  springing  up  of 
the  many  thousand  unnamed  graves,  where  the  rebel 
soldiers  lie  unknown,  when  the  Federal  drums  in 
Richmond  begin  sharply  beating  the  rappel. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   NEGRO. 

IN  the  back  country  of  Virginia,  and  on  the  borders 
of  North  Carolina,  it  becomes  clear  that  our  common 
English  notions  of  the  negro  and  of  slavery  are  nearer 
the  truth  than  common  notions  often  are.  The  Lon- 
don Christy  Minstrels  are  not  more  given  to  bursts  of 
laughter  of  the  form  "Yah !  yah!"  than  are  the  plant- 
ation hands.  The  negroes  upon  the  Virginia  farms 
are  not  maligned  by  those  who  represent  them  as  de- 


THE  NEGRO.  17 

lighting  in  the  contrasts  of  crimson  and  yellow,  or 
emerald  and  sky-blue.  I  have  seen  them  on  a  Sunday 
afternoon,  dressed  in  scarlet  waistcoats  and  gold-laced 
cravats,  returning  hurriedly  from  "meetin',"  to  dance 
break-downs,  and  grin  from  ear  to  ear  for  hours  at  a 
time.  What  better  should  we  expect  from  men  to 
whom  until  just  now  it  was  forbidden,  under  tremen- 
dous penalties,  to  teach  their  letters  ? 

Nothing  can  force  the  planters  to  treat  negro  free- 
dom save  from  the  comic  side.  To  them  the  thing  is 
too  new  for  thought,  too  strange  for  argument;  the 
ridiculous  lies  on  the  surface,  and  to  this  they  turn  as 
a  relief.  When  I  asked  a  planter  how  the  blacks  pros- 
pered under  freedom,  his  answer  was,  "Ours  don't 
much  like  it.  You  see,  it  necessitates  monogamy.  If 
I  talk  about  the  l responsibilities  of  freedom,'  Sambo 
says,  'Dunno  'bout  that;  please,  mass'  George:  me 
want  two  wife.' '  Another  planter  tells  me,  that  the 
only  change  he  can  see  in  the  condition  of  the  negroes 
since  they  have  been  free  is  that  formerly  the  super- 
vision of  the  overseer  forced  them  occasionally  to  be 
clean,  whereas  now  nothing  on  earth  can  make  them 
wash.  He  says  that,  writing  lately  to  his  agent,  he 
received  an  answer  to  which  there  was  the  following 
postscript:  "You  ain't  sent  no  sope.  You  had  better 
send  sope:  niggers  is  certainly  needing  sope." 

It  is  easy  to  treat  the  negro  question  in  this  way; 
easy,  on  the  other  hand,  to  assert  that  since  history 
fails  us  as  a  guide  to  the  future  of  the  emancipated 
blacks,  we  should  see  what  time  will  bring,  and  mean- 
while set  down  negroes  as  a  monster  class  of  which 
nothing  is  yet  known,  and,  like  the  compilers  of  the 
Catalan  map,  say  of  places  of  which  we  have  no  knowl- 
edge, "Here  be  giants,  cannibals,  and  negroes."  As 
long  as  we  possess  Jamaica,  and  are  masters  upon 

2* 


18  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

the  African  west  coast,  the  negro  question  is  one  of 
moment  to  ourselves.  It  is  one,  too,  of  mightier  im- 
port, for  it  is  bound  up  with  the  future  of  the  English 
in  America.  It  is  by  no  means  a  question  to  be  passed 
over  as  a  joke.  There  are  five  millions  of  negroes  in 
the  United  States;  juries  throughout  ten  States  of  the 
Union  are  mainly  chosen  from  the  black  race.  The 
matter  is  not  only  serious,  but  full  of  interest,  political, 
ethnological,  historic. 

In  the  South  you  must  take  nothing  upon  trust;  be- 
lieve nothing  you  are  told.  Nowhere  in  the  world  do 
"  facts"  appear  so  differently  to  those  who  view  them 
through  spectacles  of  yellow  or  of  rose.  The  old  plant- 
ers tell  you  that  all  is  ruin, — that  they  have  but  half 
the  hands  they  need,  and  from  each  hand  but  a  half 
day's  work:  the  new  men,  with  Northern  energy  and 
Northern  capital,  tell  you  that  they  get  on  very  well. 

The  old  Southern  planters  find  it  hard  to  rid  them- 
selves of  their  traditions;  they  cannot  understand  free 
blacks,  and  slavery  makes  not  only  the  slaves  but  the 
masters  shiftless.  They  have  no  cash,  and  the  Metayer 
system  gives  rise  to  the  suspicion  of  some  fraud,  for 
the  negroes  are  very  distrustful  of  the  honesty  of  their 
former  masters. 

The  worst  of  the  evils  that  must  inevitably  grow 
out  of  the  sudden  emancipation  of  millions  of  slaves 
have  not  shown  themselves  as  yet,  in  consequence  of 
the  great  amount  of  work  that  has  to  be  done  in  the 
cities  of  the  South,  in  repairing  the  ruin  caused  during 
the  war  by  fire  and  want  of  care,  and  in  building  places 
of  business  for  the  Northern  capitalists.  The  negroes 
of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  have  flocked  down  to 
the  towns  and  ports  by  the  thousand,  and  find  in  Nor- 
folk, Richmond,  Wilmington,  and  Fort  Monroe  em- 
ployment for  the  moment.  Their  absence  from  the 


THE   NEGRO.  19 

plantations  makes  labor  dear  up  country,  and  this  in 
itself  tempts  the  negroes  who  remain  on  land  to  work 
sturdily  for  wages.  Seven  dollars  a  month — at  the  the 
rate  equal  to  one  pound — with  board  and  lodging, 
were  being  paid  to  black  field  hands  on  the  corn  and 
tobacco  farms  near  Eichmond.  It  is  when  the  city 
works  are  over  that  the  pressure  will  come,  and  it  will 
probably  end  in  the  blacks  largely  pushing  northward, 
and  driving  the  Irish  out  of  hotel  service  at  New  York 
and  Boston,  as  they  have  done  in  Philadelphia  and 
St.  Louis. 

Already  the  negroes  are  beginning  to  ask  for  land, 
and  they  complain  loudly  that  none  of  the  confiscated 
lands  have  been  assigned  to  them.  "Ef  yer  dun  gib 
us  de  land,  reckon  de  ole  massas  '11  starb  de  niggahs," 
was  a  plain,  straightforward  summary  of  the  negro 
view  of  the  negro  question,  given  me  by  a  white-bearded 
old  "  uncle"  in  Richmond,  and  backed  by  every  black 
man  within  hearing  in  a  chorus  of  "Dat's  true,  for 
shore;"  but  I  found  up  the  country  that  the  planters 
are  afraid  to  let  the  negroes  own  or  farm  for  them- 
selves the  smallest  plot  of  land,  for  fear  that  they  should 
sell  ten  times  as  much  as  they  grew,  stealing  their 
"crop"  from  the  granaries  of  their  employers. 

At  a  farm  near  Petersburg,  owned  by  a  Northern 
capitalist,  1000  acres,  which  before  emancipation  had 
been  tilled  by  one  hundred  slaves,  now  needed,  I  was 
told,  but  forty  freedmen  for  their  cultivation ;  but  when 
I  reached  the  place,  I  found  that  the  former  number 
included  old  people  and  women,  while  the  forty  were 
all  hale  men.  The  men  were  paid  upon  the  tally  sys- 
tem. A  card  was  given  them  for  each  day's  work, 
which  was  accepted  at  the  plantation  store  in  payment 
for  goods  supplied,  and  at  the  end  of  the  month  money 
was  paid  for  the  remaining  tickets.  The  planters  say 


20  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

that  the  field  hands  will  not  support  their  old  people ; 
but  this  means  only  that,  like  white  folk,  they  try  to 
make  as  much  money  as  they  can,  and  know  that  if 
they  plead  the  wants  of  their  wives  and  children,  the 
whites  will  keep  their  aged  people. 

That  the  negro  slaves  were  lazy,  thriftless,  unchaste, 
and  thieves,  is  true;  but  it  is  as  slaves,  and  not  as 
negroes,  that  they  were  all  these  things ;  and,  after  all, 
the  effects  of  slavery  upon  the  slave  are  less  terrible 
than  its  effects  upon  the  master.  The  moral  condition 
to  which  the  planter  class  had  been  brought  by  slavery, 
shows  out  plainly  in  the  speeches  of  the  rebel  leaders. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Vice-President  of  the  Confed- 
eracy, declared  in  1861  that  "  Slavery  is  the  natural 
and  moral  condition  of  the  negro.  ...  I  cannot  per- 
mit myself  to  doubt,"  he  went  on,  "the  ultimate  suc- 
cess of  a  full  recognition  of  this  principle  throughout 
the  civilized  and  enlightened  world  .  .  .  negro  slavery 
is  in  its  infancy." 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  American  negroes 
will  justify  the  hopes  of  their  friends ;  they  have  made 
the  best  of  every  chance  that  has  been  given  them  as 
yet;  they  were  good  soldiers,  they  are  eager  to  learn 
their  letters,  they  are  steady  at  their  work :  in  Barba- 
does  they  are  industrious  and  well  conducted ;  in  La 
Plata  they  are  exemplary  citizens.  In  America  the 
colored  laborer  has  had  no  motive  to  be  industrious. 

General  Grant  assured  me  of  the  great  aptness  at 
soldiering  shown  by  the  negro  troops.  In  battle  they 
displayed  extraordinary  courage,  but  if  their  officers 
were  picked  off  they  could  not  stand  a  charge;  no 
more,  he  said,  could  their  Southern  masters.  The 
power  of  standing  firm  after  the  loss  of  leaders  is  pos- 
sessed only  by  regiments  where  every  private  is  as  good 
as  his  captain  and  colonel,  such  as  the  Northwestern 
and  New  England  volunteers. 


THE   NEGRO.  21 

Before  I  left  Richmond  I  had  one  morning  found  my 
way  into  a  school  for  the  younger  blacks.  There  were 
as  many  present  as  the  forms  would  hold — sixty,  per- 
haps, in  all — arid  three  wounded  New  England  soldiers, 
with  pale,  thin  faces,  were  patiently  teaching  them  to 
write.  The  boys  seemed  quick  and  apt  enough,  but 
they  were  very  raw — only  a  week  or  two  in  the  school. 
Since  the  time  when  Oberlin  first  proclaimed  the  po- 
tential equality  of  the  race  by  admitting  negroes  as 
freely  as  white  men  and  women  to  the  college,  the 
negroes  have  never  been  backward  to  learn. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  negro  is  wanting 
in  abilities  of  a  certain  kind.  Even  in  the  imbecility 
of  the  Congo  dance  we  note  his  unrivaled  mimetic 
powers.  The  religious  side  of  the  negro  character  is 
full  of  weird  suggestiveness;  but  superstition,  every- 
where the  handmaid  of  ignorance,  is  rife  among  the 
black  plantation  hands.  It  is  thought  that  the  pun- 
ishment with  which  the  shameful  rites  of  Obi-worship 
have  been  visited  has  proved,  even  in  the  City  of  ~New 
Orleans,  insufficient  to  prevent  them.  Charges  of 
witchcraft  are  as  common  in  Virginia  as  in  Orissa;  in 
the  Carolinas  as  in  Central  India  the  use  of  poison  is 
often  sought  to  work  out  the  events  foretold  by  some 
noted  sorceress.  In  no  direction  can  the  matter  be 
followed  out  to  its  conclusions  without  bringing  us  face 
to  face  with  the  sad  fact  that  the  faults  of  the  planta- 
tion negro  are  every  one  of  them  traceable  to  the  vices 
of  the  slavery  system,  and  that  the  Americans  of  to-day 
are  suffering  beyond  measure  for  evils  for  which  our 
forefathers  are  responsible.  We  ourselves  are  not 
guiltless  of  wrong- doing  in  this  matter:  if  it  is  still  im- 
possible openly  to  advocate  slavery  in  England,  it  has, 
at  least,  become  a  habit  persistently  to  write  down 
freedom.  We  are  no  longer  told  that  God  made  the 


22  CHEATER    BRITAIN. 

blacks  to  be  slaves,  but  we  are  bade  remember  that 
they  cannot  prosper  under  emancipation.  All  men- 
tion of  Barbadoes  is  suppressed,  but  we  have  daily 
homilies  on  the  condition  of  Jamaica.  The  negro 
question  in  America  is  briefly  this:  is  there,  on  the 
one  hand,  reason  to  fear  that,  dollars  applied  to  land 
decreasing  while  black  mouths  to  be  fed  increase,  the 
Southern  States  will  become  an  American  Jamaica? 
Is  there,  on  the  other  hand,  ground  for  the  hope  that 
the  negroes  maybe  found  not  incapable  of  the  citizen- 
ship of  the  United  States  ?  The  former  of  these  two 
questions  is  the  more  difficult,  and  to  some  extent  in- 
volves the  latter:  can  cotton,  can  sugar,  can  rice,  can 
coffee,  can  tobacco,  be  raised  by  white  field  hands  ?  If 
not,  can  they  be  raised  with  profit  by  black  free  labor  ? 
Can  co-operative  planting,  directed  by  negro  over- 
lookers, possibly  succeed,  or  must  the  farm  be  ruled 
by  white  capitalists,  agents,  and  overseers? 

It  is  asserted  that  the  negro  will  not  work  with- 
out compulsion;  but  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Eu- 
ropean. There  is  compulsion  of  many  kinds.  The 
emancipated  negro  may  still  be  forced  to  work — 
forced  as  the  white  man  is  forced  in  this  and  other 
lands,  by  the  alternative,  work  or  starve !  This  forcing, 
however,  may  not  be  confined  to  that  which  the  laws 
of  natural  increase  lead  us  to  expect;  it  may  be  stimu- 
lated by  bounties  on  immigration. 

The  negro  is  not,  it  would  seem,  to  have  a 
monopoly  of  Southern  labor  in  this  continent.  This 
week  we  hear  of  three  shiploads  of  Chinese  coolies  as 
just  landed  in  Louisiana;  and  the  air  is  thick  with 
rumors  of  labor  from  Bombay,  from  Calcutta,  from 
the  Pacific  Islands — of  Eastern  labor  in  its  hundred 
shapes — not  to  speak  of  competition  with  the  whites, 
now  commencing  with  the  German  immigration  into 
Tennessee. 


THE   NEGRO.  23 

The  berries  of  this  country  are  so  large,- so  many, 
so  full  of  juice,  that  alone  they  form  a  never-failing 
source  of  nourishment  to  an  idle  population.  Three 
kinds  of  cranberries,  American,  pied,  and  English; 
two  blackberries,  huckleberries,  high-bush  and  low- 
bush  blueberries — the  latter  being  the  English  bilberry 
— are  among  the  best  known  of  the  native  fruits.  No 
one  in  this  country,  however  idle  he  be,  need  starve. 
If  he  goes  farther  south,  he  has  the  banana,  the  true 
staff  of  life. 

The  terrible  results  of  the  plentiful  possession  of 
this  tree  are  seen  in  Ceylon,  at  Panama,  in  the  coast- 
lands  of  Mexico,  at  Auckland  in  New  Zealand.  At 
Pitcairn's  Island  the  plantain  grove  has  beaten  the 
missionary  from  the  field;  there  is  much  lip-Chris- 
tianity, but  no  practice  to  be  got  from  a  people  who 
possess  the  fatal  plant.  The  much-abused  cocoanut 
cannot  come  near  it  as  a  devil's  agent.  The  cocoa- 
palm  is  confined  to  a  few  islands  and  coast  tracts — 
confined,  too,  to  the  tropics  and  sea-level;  the  plantain 
and  banana  extend  over  seventy-degrees  of  latitude, 
down  to  Botany  Bay  and  King  George's  Sound,  and 
up  as  far  north  as  the  Khyber  Pass.  The  palm  asks 
labor — not  much,  it  is  true;  but  still  a  few  days'  hard 
work  in  the  year  in  trenching,  and  climbing  after  the 
nuts.  The  plantain  grows  as  a  weed,  and  hangs  down 
its  bunches  of  ripe  tempting  fruit  into  your  lap  as  you 
lie  in  its  cool  shade.  The  cocoanut-tree  has  a  hundred 
uses,  and  urges  men  to  work  to  make  spirit  from  its 
juice,  ropes,  clothes,  matting,  bags,  from  its  fiber,  oil 
from  the  pulp ;  it  creates  an  export  trade  which  appeals 
to  almost  all  men  by  their  weakest  side,  in  offering 
large  and  quick  returns  for  a  little  work.  John  Ross's 
"Isle  of  Cocoas,"  to  the  west  of  Java  and  south  of 
Ceylon,  yields  him  heavy  gains;  there  are  profits  to  be 


24  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

made  upon  the  Liberian  coast,  and  even  in  Southern 
India  and  Ceylon.  The  plantain  will  make  nothing; 
you  can  eat  it  raw  or  fried,  and  that  is  all ;  you  can  eat 
it  every  day  of  your  life  without  becoming  tired  of  its 
taste ;  without  suffering  in  your  health,  you  can  live  on 
it  exclusively.  In  the  banana  groves  of  Florida  and 
Louisiana  there  lurks  much  trouble  and  danger  to  the 
American  free  States. 

The  negroes  have  hardly  much  chance  in  Virginia 
against  the  Northern  capitalists,  provided  with  white 
labor;  but  the  States  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Florida, 
and  South  Carolina  promise  to  be  wholly  theirs.  Al- 
ready they  are  flocking  to  places  in  which  they  have  a 
majority  of  the  people,  and  can  control  the  municipal- 
ities, and  defend  themselves,  if  necessary,  by  force; 
but  if  the  Southerners  of  the  coast  desert  their  country, 
the  negroes  will  not  have  it  to  themselves,  unless  na- 
ture declares  that  they  shall.  New  Englanders  will 
pour  in  with  capital  and  energy,  and  cultivate  the  land 
by  free  black  or  by  coolie  labor,  if  either  will  pay.  If 
they  do  pay,  competition  will  force  the  remaining 
blacks  to  work  or  starve. 

The  friends  of  the  negro  are  not  without  a  fear  that 
the  laborers  will  be  too  many  for  their  work,  for, 
while  the  older  cotton  States  appear  to  be  worn  out, 
the  new,  such  as  Texas  and  Tennessee,  will  be  re- 
served by  public  opinion  to  the  whites.  For  the 
present  the  negroes  will  be  masters  in  seven  of  the 
rebel  States;  but  in  Texas,  white  men — English,  Ger- 
mans, Danes — are  growing  cotton  with  success;  and 
in  Georgia  and  North  Carolina,  which  contain  mount- 
ain districts,  the  negro  power  is  not  likely  to  be  per- 
manent. 

We  may,  perhaps,  lay  it  down  as  a  general  principle 
that,  when  the  negro  can  fight  his  way  through  oppo- 


THE    NEGRO.  25 

sition,  and  stand  alone  as  a  farmer  or  laborer,  without 
the  aid  of  private  or  State  charity,  then  he  should  be 
protected  in  the  position  he  has  shown  himself  worthy 
to  hold,  that  of  a  free  citizen  of  an  enlightened  and 
laboring  community.  Where  it  is  found  that  when 
his  circumstances  have  ceased  to  be  exceptional,  the 
negro  cannot  live  unassisted,  there, the  Federal  gov- 
ernment may  fairly  and  wisely  step  in  and  say,  "  We 
will  not  keep  you ;  but  we  will  carry  you  to  Liberia 
or  to  Hayti,  if  you  will." 

It  is  clear  that  the  Southern  negroes  must  be  given 
a  decisive  voice  in  the  appointment  of  the  legislatures 
by  which  they  are  to  be  ruled,  or  that  the  North  must 
be  prepared  to  back  up  by  force  of  opinion,  or  if  need 
be,  by  force  of  arms,  the  Federal  Executive,  when  it 
insists  on  the  Civil  Eights  Bill  being  set  in  action  at 
the  South.  Government  through  the  negroes  is  the 
only  way  to  avoid  government  through  an  army,  which 
would  be  dangerous  to  the  freedom  of  the  North.  It 
is  safer  for  America  to  trust  her  slaves  than  to  trust 
her  rebels — safer  to  enfranchise  than  to  pardon. 

A  reading  and  writing  basis  for  the  suffrage  in  the 
Southern  States  is  an  absurdity.  Coupled  with  par- 
dons to  the  rebels,  it  would  allow  the  "boys  in  gray" 
—  the  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy — to  control  nine 
States  of  the  Union ;  it  would  render  the  education  of 
the  freedmen  hopeless.  For  the  moment,  it  would 
entirely  disfranchise  the  negroes  in  six  States,  whereas 
it  is  exactly  for  the  moment  that  negro  suffrage  is  in 
these  States  necessary;  while,  if  the  rebels  were  ad- 
mitted to  vote,  and  the  negroes  excluded  from  the  poll, 
the  Southern  representatives,  united  with  the  Copper- 
head wing  of  the  Democratic  party,  might  prove  to  be 
strong  enough  to  repudiate  the  Federal  debt.  This  is 
one  of  a  dozen  dangers. 

3 


26  ORE  ATE  E   BRITAIN. 

An  education  basis  for  the  suffrage,  though  pre- 
tended to  be  impartial,  would  be  manifestly  aimed 
against  the  negroes,  and  would  perpetuate  the  antip- 
athy of  color  to  which  the  war  is  supposed  to  have  put 
an  end.  To  education  such  a  provision  would  be  a 
death-blow.  If  the  negroes  were  to  vote  as  soon  as 
they  could  read,  it  is  certain  that  the  planters  would 
take  good  care  that  they  never  should  read  at  all. 

That  men  should  be  able  to  examine  into  the  details 
of  politics  is  not  entirely  necessary  to  the  working  of 
representative  government.  It  is  sufficient  that  they 
should  be  competent  to  select  men  to  do  it  for  them. 
In  the  highest  form  of  representative  government, 
where  all  the  electors  are  both  intelligent,  educated, 
and  alive  to  the  politics  of  the  time,  then  the  member 
returned  must  tend  more  and  more  to  be  a  delegate. 
That  has  always  been  the  case  with  the  Northern  and 
"Western  members  in  America,  but  never  with  those 
returned  by  the  Southern  States ;  and  so  it  will  con- 
tinue, whether  the  Southern  elections  be  decided  by 
negroes  or  by  "mean  whites." 

In  Warren  County,  Mississippi,  near  Vicksburg,  is 
a  plantation  which  belongs  to  Joseph  Davis,  the  brother 
of  the  rebel  president.  This  he  has  leased  to  Mr. 
Montgomery — once  his  slave — in  order  that  an  associ- 
ation of  blacks  may  be  formed  to  cultivate  the  planta- 
tion on  co-operative  principles.  It  is  to  be  managed 
by  a  council  elected  by  the  community  at  large,  and  a 
voluntary  poor-rate  and  embankment-rate  are  to  be 
levied  on  the  people  by  themselves. 

It  is  only  a  year  since  the  termination  of  the  war, 
and  the  negroes  are  already  in  possession  of  schools, 
village  corporations,  of  the  Metayer  system,  of  co- 
operative farms ;  all  this  tells  of  rapid  advance,  and 
the  conduct  and  circulation  of  the  New  Orleans  Tribune, 


THE    SOUTH.  27 

edited  and  published  by  negroes,  and  selling  10,000 
copies  daily,  and  another  10,000  of  the  weekly  issue, 
speaks  well  for  the  progress  of  the  blacks.  If  the 
Montgomery  experiment  succeeds,  their  future  is  se- 
cure. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   SOUTH. 

THE  political  forecasts  and  opinions  which  were 
given  me  upon  plantations  were,  in  a  great  measure, 
those  indicated  in  my  talk  with  the  Norfolk  "loafers." 
On  the  history  of  the  commencement  of  the  rebellion 
there  was  singular  unanimity.  "  Virginia  never  meant 
to  quit  the  Union ;  we  were  cheated  by  those  rascals 
of  the  South.  When  we  did  go  out,  we  were  left  to 
do  all  •  the  fighting.  Why,  sir,  I've  seen  a  Mississippian 
division  run  away  from  a  single  Yankee  regiment." 

As  I  heard  much  the  same  story  from  the  North 
Carolinians  that  I  met,  it  would  seem  as  though  there 
was  little  union  among  the  seceding  States.  The 
legend  upon  the  first  of  all  the  secession  flags  that 
were  hoisted  was  typical  of  this  devotion  to  the  for- 
tunes of  the  State:  "Death  to  abolitionists;  South 
Carolina  goes  it  alone ;"  and  during  the  whole  war  it 
was  not  the  rebel  colors,  but  the  palmetto  emblem,  or 
other  State  devices,  that  the  ladies  wore. 

About  the  war  itself  but  little  is  said,  though  here 
and  there  I  met  a  man  who  would  tell  camp  stories  in 
the  Northern  style.  One  planter,  who  had  been  "  out" 
himself,  went  so  far  as  to  say  to  me :  "  Our  officers 


28  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

were  good,  but  considering  that  our  rank  and  file 
were  just  <  white  trash/  and  that  they  had  to  fight 
regiments  of  ISTew  England  Yankee  volunteers,  with 
all  their  best  blood  in  the  ranks,  and  Western  sharp- 
shooters together,  it's  only  wonderful  how  we  weren't 
whipped  sooner." 

As  for  the  future,  the  planter's  policy  is  a  simple 
one:  "Reckon  we're  whipped,  so  we  go  in  now  for  the 
old  flag;  only  those  Yankee  rogues  must  give  us  the 
control  of  our  own  people."  The  one  result  of  the 
war  has  been,  as  they  believe,  the  abolition  of  slavery  ; 
otherwise  the  situation  is  unchanged.  The  war  is  over, 
the  doctrine  of  secession  is  allowed  to  fall  into  the 
background,  and  the  ex-rebels  claim  to  step  once  more 
into  their  former  place,  if,  indeed,  they  admit  that  they 
ever  left  it. 

Every  day  that  you  are  in  the  South  you  come  more 
and  more  to  see  that  the  "  mean  whites"  are  the  con- 
trolling power.  The  landowners  are  not  only  few  in 
number,  but  their  apathy  during  the  present  crisis  is 
surprising.  The  men  who  demand  their  readmission 
to  the  government  of  eleven  States  are  unkempt,  fierce- 
eyed  fellows,  not  one  whit  better  than  the  brancos  of 
Brazil;  the  very  men,  strangely  enough,  who  them- 
selves, in  their  "  Leavenworth  constitution,"  first  began 
disfranchisement,  declaring  that  the  qualification  for 
electors  in  the  new  State  of  Kansas  should  be  the 
taking  oath  to  uphold  the  infamous  Fugitive  Slave 
Law. 

These  "mean  whites"  were  the  men  who  brought 
about  secession.  The  planters  are  guiltless  of  every- 
thing but  criminal  indifference  to  the  deeds  that  were 
committed  in  their  name.  Secession  was  the  act  of  a 
pack  of  noisy  demagogues;  but  a  false  idea  of  honor 
brought  round  a  majority  of  the  Southern  people, 


THE    SOUTH.  29 

and  the  infection  of  enthusiasm  carried  over  the  re- 
mainder. 

When  the  war  sprang  up,  the  old  Southern  con- 
tempt for  the  Yankees  broke  out  into  a  fierce  burst  of 
joy,  that  the  day  had  come  for  paying  off  old  scores. 
"We  hate  them,  sir,"  said  an  old  planter  to  me.  "I 
wish  to  God  that  the  Mayflower  had  sunk  with  all 
hands  in  Plymouth  Bay." 

Along  with  this  violence  of  language,  there  is  a 
singular  kind  of  cringing  to  the  conquerors.  Time 
after  time  I  heard  the  complaint,  "The  Yanks  treat 
us  shamefully,  I  reckon.  We  come  back  to  the  Union, 
and  give  in  on  every  point;  we  renounce  slavery;  we 
consent  to  forget  the  past ;  and  yet  they  won't  restore 
us  to  our  rights."  Whenever  I  came  to  ask  what  they 
meant  by  "rights,"  I  found  the  same  haziness  that 
everywhere  surrounds  that  word.  The  Southerners 
seem  to  think  that  men  may  rebel  and  fight  to  the 
death  against  their  country,  and  then,  being  beaten, 
lay  down  their  arms  and  walk  quietly  to  the  polls  along 
with  law-abiding  citizens,  secure  in  the  protection  of 
the  Constitution  which  for  years  they  have  fought  to 
subvert. 

At  Richmond  I  had  a  conversation  which  may  serve 
as  a  specimen  of  what  one  hears  each  moment  from 
the  planters.  An  old  gentleman  with  whom  I  was 
talking  politics  opened  at  me  suddenly:  "The  Radicals 
are  going  to  give  the  ballot  to  our  niggers  to  strengthen 
their  party,  but  they  know  better  than  to  give  it  to 
their  Northern  niggers." 

D. — "But  surely  there's  a  difference  in  the  cases." 

The  Planter. — "You're  right — there  is;  but  not  your 
way.  The  difference  is,  that  the  Northern  niggers  can 
read  and  write,  and  even  lie  with  consistency,  and  ours 
can't." 

3* 


30  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

D. — "But  there's  the  wider  difference,  that  negro 
suffrage  down  here  is  a  necessity,  unless  you  are  to  rule 
the  country  that's  just  beaten  you." 

The  Planter. — "  Well,  there  of  course  we  differ.  We 
rehs  say  we  fought  to  take  our  State  out  of  the  Union. 
The  Yanks  beat  us ;  so  our  States  must  still  be  in  the 
Union.  If  so,  why  shouldn't  our  representatives  be 
unconditionally  admitted?" 

Nearer  to  a  conclusion  we  of  course  did  not  come, 
he  declaring  that  no  man  ought  to  vote  who  had  not 
education  enough  to  understand  the  Constitution,  I, 
that  this  was  good  prima  fade  evidence  against  letting 
him  vote,  but  that  it  might  be  rebutted  by  the  proof 
of  a  higher  necessity  for  his  voting.  As  a  planter  said 
to  me,  "  The  Southerners  prefer  soldier  rule  to  nigger 
rule;"  but  it  is  not  a  question  of  what  they  prefer,  but 
of  what  eourse  is  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  Union 
which  they  fought  to  destroy. 

Nowhere  in  the  Southern  States  did  I  find  any  ex- 
pectation of  a  fresh  rebellion.  It  is  only  Englishmen 
who  ask  whether  "  the  South"  will  not  fight  "  once 
more."  The  South  is  dead  and  gone;  there  can  never 
be  a  "  South"  again,  but  only  so  many  Southern  States. 
"The  South"  meant  simply  the  slave  country;  and 
slavery  being  dead,  it  is  dead.  Slavery  gave  us  but 
two  classes  besides  the  negroes — planters  and  "  mean 
whites."  The  great  planters  were  but  a  few  thousand 
in  number;  they  are  gone  to  Canada,  England,  Ja- 
maica, California,  Colorado,  Texas.  The  "mean 
whites" — the  true  South — are  impossible  in  the  face 
of  free  labor:  they  must  work  or  starve.  If  they 
work,  they  will  no  longer  be  "mean  whites,"  but  es- 
sentially Northerners — that  is,  citizens  of  a  democratic 
republic,  and  not  oligarchists. 

As  the  Southerners  admit  that  there  can  be  no  fur- 


THE    SOUTH.  31 

ther  war,  it  would  be  better  even  for  themselves  that 
they  should  allow  the  sad  record  of  their  rising  to  fade 
away.  Their  speeches,  their  newspapers  continue  to 
make  use  of  language  which  nothing  could  excuse,  and 
which,  in  the  face  of  the  magnanimity  of  the  conquer- 
ors, is  disgraceful.  In  a  Mobile  paper  I  have  seen  a 
leader  which  describes  with  hideous  minuteness  Lin- 
coln, Lane,  John  Brown,  and  Dostie  playing  whist  in 
hell.  A  Texas  cutting  which  I  have  is  less  blasphe- 
mous, but  not  less  vile:  "The  English  language  no 
longer  affords  terms  in  which  to  curse  a  sniveling, 
weazen-faced  piece  of  humanity  generally  denomin- 
ated a  Yankee.  We  see  some  about  here  sometimes, 
but  they  skulk  around,  like  sheep-killing  dogs,  and 
>  associate  mostly  with  niggers.  They  whine  and  prate, 
and  talk  about  the  judgment  of  God,  as  if  God  had 
anything  to  do  with  them."  The  Southerners  have 
not  even  the  wit  or  grace  to  admit  that  the  men  who 
beat  them  were  good  soldiers;  "blackguards  and 
braggarts,"  "cravens  and  thieves,"  are  common  names 
for  the  men  of  the  Union  army.  I  have  in  my  posses- 
sion an  Alabama  paper  in  which  General  Sheridan,  at 
that  time  the  commander  of  the  military  division  which 
included  the  State,  is  styled  "  a  short^tailed  slimy  tad- 
pole of  the  later  spawn,  the  blathering  disgrace  of  an 
honest  father,  an  everlasting  libel  on  his  Irish  blood, 
the  synonym  of  infamy,  and  scorn  of  all  brave  men." 
While  I  was  in  Virginia,  one  of  the  Eichmond  papers 
said:  "This  thing  of  'loyalty'  will  not  do  for  the 
Southern  man/' 

The  very  day  that  I  landed  in  the  Stmth  a  dinner 
was  given  at  Eichmond  by  the  "Grays,"  a  volunteer 
corps  which  had  fought  through  the  rebellion.  After 
the  roll  of  honor,  or  list  of  men  killed  in  battle,  had 
been  read,  there  were  given  as  toasts  by  rebel  officers: 


32  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

" Jeff.  Davis — the  caged  eagle;  the  bars  confine  his 
person,  but  his  great  spirit  soars;"  and  "  The  con- 
quered banner,  may  its  resurrection  at  last  be  as  bright 
and  as  glorious  as  theirs — the  dead." 

It  is  in  the  face  of  such  words  as  these  that  Mr. 
Johnson,  the  most  unteachable  of  mortals,  asks  men 
who  have  sacrificed  their  sons  to  restore  the  Union  to 
admit  the  ex-rebels  to  a  considerable  share  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  nation,  even  if  they  are  not  to  monop- 
olize it,  as  they  did  before  the  war.  His  conduct  seems 
to  need  the  Western  editor's  defense :  "  He  must  be 
kinder  honest-like,  he  aire  sich  a  tarnation  foolish 
critter." 

It  is  clear,  from  the  occurrence  of  such  dinners,  the 
publication  of  such  paragraphs  and  leaders  as  those  of  * 
which  I  have  spoken,  that  there  is  no  military  tyranny 
existing  in  the  South.  The  country  is  indeed  admin- 
istered by  military  commanders,  but  it  is  not  ruled  by 
troops.  Before  we  can  give  ear  to  the  stories  that  are 
afloat  in  Europe  of  the  "government  of  major-gen- 
erals," we  must  believe  that  five  millions  of  English- 
men, inhabiting  a  country  as  large  as  Europe,  are 
crushed  down  by  some  ten  thousand  other  men — 
about  as  many  as  are  needed  to  keep  order  in  the  sin- 
gle town  of  Warsaw.  The  Southerners  are  allowed  to 
rule  themselves;  the  question  now  at  issue  is  merely 
whether  they  shall  also  rule  their  former  slaves,  the 
negroes. 

I  hardly  felt  myself  out  of  the  reach  of  slavery  and 
rebellion  till,  steaming  up  the  Potomac  from  Aquia 
Creek  by  the**  gray  dawn,  I  caught  sight  of  a  grand 
pile  towering  over  a  city  from  a  magnificent  situation 
on  the  brow  of  a  long,  rolling  hill.  Just  at  the  mo- 
ment, the  sun,  invisible  as  yet  to  us  below,  struck  the 
marble  dome  and  cupola,  and  threw  the  bright  gilding 


THE  EMPIRE   STATE.  -  33 

into  a  golden  blaze,  till  the  Greek  shape  stood  out  upon 
the  blue  sky,  glowing  like  a  second  sun.  The  city  was 
Washington ;  the  palace  with  the  burnished  cupola  the 
Capitol;  and  within  two  hours  I  was  present  at  the 
"hot-weather  sitting"  of  the  39th  Congress  of  the 
United  States. 


CHAPTEE  IY. 

THE     EMPIRE     STATE. 

AT  the  far  southeast  of  New  York  City,  where  the 
Hudson  and  East  River  meet  to  form  the  inner  bay, 
is  an  ill-kept  park  that  might  be  made  the  loveliest 
garden  in  the  world.  Nowhere  do  the  features  that 
have  caused  New  York  to  take  rank  as  the  first  port 
of  America  stand  forth  more  clearly.  The  soft  even- 
ing breeze  tells  of  a  climate  as  good  as  the  world  can 
show ;  the  setting  sun  floods  with  light  a  harbor  secure 
and  vast,  formed  by  the  confluence  of  noble  streams, 
and  girt  with  quays  at  which  huge  ships  jostle;  the 
rows  of  500-pounder  Rodmans  at  "The  Narrows"  are 
tokens  of  the  nation's  strength  and  wealth ;  and  the 
yachts,  as  well  handled  as  our  own,  racing  into  port 
from  an  ocean  regatta,  give  evidence  that  there  are 
Saxons  in  the  land.  At  the  back  is  the  city,  teeming 
with  life,  humming  with  trade,  muttering  with  the 
thunder  of  passage.  Opposite,  in  Jersey  City,  people 
say:  "Every  New  Yorker  has  come  a  good  half-hour 
late  into  the  world,  and  is  trying  all  his  life  to  make  it 
up."  The  bustle  is  immense. 

All  is  so  un-English,  so  foreign,  that  hearing  men 


34  *  GEE  ATE  R    BRITAIN. 

speaking  what  Czar  Nicholas  was  used  to  call  "the 
American  tongue,"  I  wheel  round,  crying — "Dear 
me!  if  here  are  not  some  English  folk!"  astonished 
as  though  I  had  heard  French  in  Australia  or  Italian 
in  Timbuctoo. 

The  Englishman  who,  coming  to  America,  expects 
to  find  cities  that  smell  of  home,  soon  learns  that 
Baker  Street  itself,  or  Portland  Place,  would  not  look 
English  in  the  dry  air  of  a  continent  four  thousand 
miles  across.  New  York,  however,  is  still  less  English 
than  is  Boston,  Philadelphia,  or  Chicago — her  people 
are  as  little  Saxon  as  her  streets.  Once  Southern, 
with  the  brand  of  slavery  deeply  printed  in  the  fore- 
heads of  her  foremost  men,  since  the  defeat  of  the  re- 
bellion New  York  has  to  the  eye  been  cosmopolitan  as 
any  city  of  the  Levant.  All  nationless  towns  are  not 
alike:  Alexandria  has  a  Greek  or  an  Italian  tinge; 
San  Francisco  an  English  tone,  with  something  of  the 
heartiness  of  our  Elizabethan  times;  New  York  has  a 
deep  Latin  shade,  and  the  democracy  of  the  Empire 
State  is  of  the  French,  not  of  the  American  or  English 
type. 

At  the  back,  here,  on  the  city  side,  are  tall  gaunt 
houses,  painted  red,  like  those  of  the  quay  at  Dort  or 
of  the  Boompjes  at  Rotterdam,  the  former  dwellings 
of  the  " Knickerbockers"  of  New  Amsterdam,  the 
founders  of  New  York,  but  now  forgotten.  There 
may  be  a  few  square  yards  of  painting,  red  or  blue, 
upon  the  houses  in  Broadway;  there  may  be  here  and 
there  a  pagoda  summer-house  overhanging  a  canal; 
once  in  a  year  you  may  run  across  a  worthy  descend- 
ant of  the  old  Netherlandish  families;  but  in  the  main 
the  Hollanders  in  America  are  as  though  they  had 
neven  been ;  to  find  the  memorials  of  lost  Dutch  em- 
pire, we  must  search  Cape  Colony  or  Ceylon.  The 


THE  EMPIRE   STATE.  35 

New  York  un-English  tone  is  not  Batavian.  Neither 
the  sons  of  the  men  who  once  lived  in  these  houses, 
nor  the  Germans  whose  names  are  now  upon  the 
doors,  nor,  for  the  matter  of  that,  we  English,  who 
claim  New  York  as  the  second  of  our  towns,  are  the 
to-day's  New  Yorkers. 

Here,  on  the  water's  edge,  is  a  rickety  hall,  where 
Jenny  Lind  sang  when  first  she  landed — now  the  spot 
where  strangers  of  another  kind  are  welcomed  to 
America.  Every  true  republican  has  in  his  heart  the 
notion  that  his  country  is  pointed  out  by  God  for  a  re- 
fuge for  the  distressed  of  all  the  nations.  He  has  sprung 
himself  from  men  who  came  to  seek  a  sanctuary — 
from  the  Quakers,  or  the  Catholics,  or  the  pilgrims  of 
the  Mayflower.  Even  though  they  corne  to  take  the 
bread  from  his  mouth,  or  to  destroy  his  peace,  it  is  his 
duty,  he  believes,  to  aid  the  immigrants.  Within  the 
last  twenty  years  there  have  landed  at  New  York  alone 
four  million  strangers.  Of  these  two-thirds  were  Irish. 

While  the  Celtic  men  are  pouring  into  New  York 
and  Boston,  the  New  Englanders  and  New  Yorkers, 
too,  are  moving.  They  are  not  dying.  Facts  are  op- 
posed to  this  portentous  theory.  They  are  going  West. 
The  unrest  of  the  Celt  is  mainly  caused  by  discontent 
with  his  country's  present,  that  of  the  Saxon  by  hope 
for  his  private  future.  The  Irishman  flies  to  New 
York  because  it. lies  away  from  Ireland;  the  English- 
man takes  it  upon  his  road  to  California. 

Where  one  race  is  dominant,  immigrants  of  another 
blood  soon  lose  their  nationality.  In  New  York  and 
Boston  the  Irish  continue  to  be  Celts,  for  these  are 
Irish  cities.  In  Pittsburg,  in  Chicago,  still  more  in 
the  country  districts,  a  few  years  make  the  veriest 
Paddy  English.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Saxons  are 
disappearing  from  the  Atlantic  cities,  as  the  Spaniards 


36  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

have  gone  from  Mexico.  The  Irish  here  are  heating 
down  the  English,  as  the  English  have  crushed  out  the 
Dutch.  The  Hollander's  descendants  in  New  York 
are  English  now;  it  bids  fair  that  the  Saxons  should 
be  Irish. 

As  it  is,  though  the  Celtic  immigration  has  lasted 
only  twenty  years,  the  results  are  already  clear :  if  you 
see  a  Saxon  face  upon  the  Broadway,  you  may  be  sure 
it  belongs  to  a  traveler,  or  to  some  raw  English  lad 
bound  West,  just  landed  from  a  Plymouth  ship.  We 
need  not  lay  much  stress  upon  the  fact  that  all  New 
Yorkers  have  black  hair  and  beard:  men  may  be 
swarthy  and  yet  English.  The  ancestors  of  the  Lon- 
doners of  to-day,  we  are  told,  were  yellow-headed  roys- 
terers ;  yet  not  one  man  in  fifty  that  you  meet  in  Fleet 
Street  or  on  Tower  Hill  is  as  fair  as  the  average  Saxon 
peasant.  Doubtless,  our  English  eastern  counties  were 
peopled  in  the  main  by  low-Dutch  and  Flemings :  the 
Sussex  eyes  and  hair  are  rarely  seen  in  Suffolk.  The 
Puritans  of  New  England  are  sprung  from  those  of 
the  "  associated  counties,"  but  the  victors  of  Marston 
Moor  may  have  been  cousins  to  those  no  less  sturdy 
Protestants,  the  Hollanders  who  defended  Leyden.  It 
may  be  that  they  were  our  ancestors,  those  Dutchmen 
that  we  English  crowded  out  of  New  Amsterdam — the 
very  place  where  we  are  sharing  the  fate  we  dealt. 
The  fiery  temper  of  the  new  people  of  the  American 
coast  towns,  their  impatience  of  free  government,  are 
better  proofs  of  Celtic  blood  than  are  the  color  of  their 
eyes  and  beard. 

Year  by  year  the  towns  grow  more  and  more  in- 
tensely Irish.  Already  of  every  four  births  in  Boston, 
one  only  is  American.  There  are  120,000  foreign  to 
70,000  native  voters  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn. 
Montreal  and  Richmond  are  fast  becoming  Celtic; 


THE  EMPIRE   STATE.  37 

Philadelphia — shades  of  Perm !— can  only  be  saved  by 
the  aid  of  its  Bavarians.  Saxon  Protestantism  is  de- 
parting with  the  Saxons:  the  revenues  of  the  Empire 
State  are  spent  upon  Catholic  asylums;  plots  of  city 
land  are  sold  at  nominal  rates  for  the  sites  of  Catholic 
cathedrals,  by  the  "  city  step-fathers,"  as  they  are  called. 
Not  even  in  the  West  does  the  Latin  Church  gain 
ground  more  rapidly  than  in  New  York  City :  there 
are  80,000  professing  Catholics  in  Boston. 

When  is  this  drama,  of  which  the  first  scene  is  played 
in  Castle  Garden,  to  have  its  close?  The  matter  is 
grave  enough  already.  Ten  years  ago,  the  third  and 
fourth  cities  of  the  world,  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
were  as  English  as  our  London:  the  one  is  Irish  now; 
the  other  all  but  German.  Not  that  the  Quaker  City 
will  remain  Teutonic:  the  Germans,  too,  are  going 
out  upon  the  land ;  the  Irish  alone  pour  in  unceasingly. 
All  great  American  towns  will  soon  be  Celtic,  while 
the  country  continues  English:  a  fierce  and  easily- 
roused  people  will  throng  the  cities,  while  the  law- 
abiding  Saxons  who  till  the  land  will  cease  to  rule  it. 
Our  relations  with  America  are  matters  of  small  mo- 
ment by  the  side  of  the  one  great  question :  Who  are 
the  Americans  to  be  ? 

Our  kinsmen  are  by  no  means  blind  to  the  dangers 
that  hang  over  them.  The  "  Know-Nothing"  move- 
ment failed,  but  Protection  speaks  the  same  voice  in 
its  opposition  to  commercial  centers.  If  you  ask  a 
Western  man  why  he,  whose  interest  is  clearly  in  Free 
Trade,  should  advocate  Protection,  he  fires  out :  "Free 
Trade  is  good  for  our  American  pockets,  but  it's  death 
to  us  Americans.  All  your  Bastiats  and  Mills  won't 
touch  the  fact  that  to  us  Free  Trade  must  mean  salt- 
water despotism,  and  the  ascendency  of  New  York  and 
Boston.  Which  is  better  for  the  country — one  New 

4 


38  GEE  ATE  R    BRITAIN. 

York,  or  ten  contented  Pittsburgs  and  ten  industrious 
Lowells?" 

The  danger  to  our  race  and  to  the  world  from  Irish 
ascendency  is  perhaps  less  imminent  than  that  to  the 
republic.  In  January,  1862,  the  mayor,  Fernando 
Wood,  the  elect  of  the  "Mozart"  Democracy,  deliber- 
ately proposed  the  secession  from  the  Union  of  New 
York  City.  Of  all  the  Northern  States,  New  York 
alone  was  a  dead  weight  upon  the  loyal  people  during 
the  war  of  the  rebellion.  The  constituents  of  Wood 
were  the  very  Fenians  whom  in  our  ignorance  we  call 
"American."  It  is  America  that  Fenianism  invades 
from  Ireland — not  England  from  America. 

It  is  no  unfair  attack  upon  the  Irish  to  represent 
them  as  somewhat  dangerous  inhabitants  for  mighty 
cities.  Of  the  sixty  thousand  persons  arrested  yearly 
in  New  York,  three-fourths  are  alien  born :  two-thirds 
of  these  are  Irish.  Nowhere  else  in  all  America  are 
the  Celts  at  present  masters  of  a  city  government — 
nowhere  is  there  such  corruption.  The  purity  of  the 
government  of  Melbourne — a  city  more  democratic 
than  New  York — proves  that  the  fault  does  not  lie  in 
democracy:  it  is  the  universal  opinion  of  Americans 
that  the  Irish  are  alone  responsible. 

The  State  legislature  is  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
men  who  control  the  city  council.  They  tell  a  story 
of  a  traveler  on  the  Hudson  River  Railroad,  who,  as 
the  train  neared  Albany — the  capital  of  New  York — 
said  to  a  somewhat  gloomy  neighbor,  "  Going  to  the 
State  legislatur' ?"  getting  for  answer,  "No,  sir!  It's 
not  come  to  that  with  me  yet.  Only  to  the  State 
prison !" 

Americans  are  never  slow  to  ridicule  the  denational- 
ization of  New  York.  They  tell  you  that  during  the 
war  the  colonel  of  one  of  the  city  regiments  said:  "I've 


THE  EMPIRE   STATE.  39 

the  best  blood  of  eight  nations  in  the  ranks."  "How's 
that?"  "I've  English,  Irish,  Welsh,  Scotch,  French, 
Italians,  Germans."  "Guess  that's  only  seven." 
"  Swedes,"  suggested  some  one.  "  No,  no  Swedes," 
said  the  colonel.  "Ah!  I  have  it:  Fve  some  Ameri- 
cans." Stories  such  as  this  the  rich  New  Yorkers  are 
nothing  loth  to  tell ;  but  they  take  no  steps  to  check 
the  denationalization  they  lament.  Instead  of  enter- 
ing upon  a  reform  of  their  municipal  institutions,  they 
affect  to  despise  free  government;  instead  of  giving, 
as  the  oldest  New  England  families  have  done,  their 
tone  to  the  State  schools,  they  keep  entirely  aloof  from 
school  and  State  alike.  Sending  their  boys  to  Cam- 
bridge, Berlin,  Heidelberg,  anywhere  rather  than  to 
the  colleges  of  their  native  land,  they  leave  it  to 
learned  pious  Boston  to  supply  the  West  with  teach- 
ers, and  to  keep  up  Yale  and  Harvard.  Indignant  if 
they  are  pointed  at  as  "no  Americans,"  they  seem 
to  separate  themselves  from  everything  that  is  Amer- 
ican :  they  spend  summers  in  England,  winters  in 
Algeria,  springs  in  Rome,  and  Coloradans  say  with  a 
sneer,  "  Good  New  Yorkers  go  to  Paris  when  they  die." 

Apart  from  nationality,  there  is  danger  to  free 
government  both  in  the  growth  of  New  York  City, 
and  in  the  gigantic  fortunes  of  New  Yorkers.  The 
income,  they  tell  me,  of  one  of  my  merchant  friends 
is  larger  than  the  combined  salaries  of  the  president, 
the  governors,  and  the  whole  of  the  members  of  the 
legislatures  of  all  the  forty -five  States  and  territories. 
As  my  informant  said,  "  He  could  keep  the  govern- 
ments of  half  a  dozen  States  as  easily  as  I  can  support 
my  half  dozen  children." 

There  is  something,  no  doubt,  of  the  exaggeration 
of  political  jealousy  about  the  accounts  of  New 
York  vice  given  in  New  England  and  down  South, 


40  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

in  the  shape  of  terrible  philippics.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  overstatement  is  enormous,  for  sober  men 
are  to  be  found  even  in  New  York  who  will  tell  you 
that  this  city  outdoes  Paris  in  every  form  of  profligacy 
as  completely  as  the  French  capital  outherods  imperial 
Rome.  There  is  here  no  concealment  about  the  mat- 
ter ;  each  inhabitant  at  once  admits  the  truth  of  accu- 
sations directed  against  his  neighbor.  If  the  new 
men,  the  " petroleum  aristocracy,"  are  second  to  none 
in  their  denunciations  of  the  Irish,  these  in  their  turn 
unite  with  the  oldest  families  in  thundering  against 
«  Shoddy." 

New  York  life  shows  but  badly  in  the  summer-time ; 
it  is  seen  at  its  worst  when  studied  at  Saratoga.  With 
ourselves,  men  have  hardly  ceased  to  run  from  business 
and  pleasures  worse  than  toil  to  the  comparative  quiet 
of  the  country  house.  Among  New  Yorkers  there  is 
not  even  the  affectation  of  a  search  for  rest ;  the  flight 
is  from  the  drives  and  restaurants  of  New  York  to  the 
gambling  halls  of  Saratoga;  from  winning  piles  of 
greenbacks  to  losing  heaps  of  gold ;  from  cotton  gam- 
bling to  roulette  or  faro.  Long  Branch  is  still  more 
vulgar  in  its  vice;  it  is  the  Margate,  Saratoga  the 
Homburg  of  America. 

"Shoddy"  is  blamed  beyond  what  it  deserves  when 
the  follies  of  New  York  society  are  laid  in  a  body  at 
its  door.  If  it  be  true  that  the  New  York  drawing- 
rooms  are  the  best  guarded  in  the  world,  it  is  also  true 
that  entrance  is  denied  as  rigidly  to  intellect  and  emi- 
nence as  to  wealth.  If  exclusiveness  be  needed,  af- 
fectation can  at  least  do  nothing  toward  subduing 
"Shoddy."  Mere  cliqueism,  disgusting  everywhere, 
is  ridiculous  in  a  democratic  town ;  its  rules  of  con- 
duct are  as  out  of  place  as  kid  gloves  in  the  New  Zea- 
land bush,  or  gold  scabbards  on  a  battle-neld. 


THE  EMPIRE    STATE.  41 

Good  meat,  and  drink,  and  air,  give  strength  to  the 
men  and  beauty  to  the  women  of  a  moneyed  class ; 
but  in  America  these  things  are  the  inheritance  of 
every  boy  and  girl,  and  give  their  owners  no  advant- 
age in  the  world.  During  the  rebellion,  the  ablest 
generals  and  bravest  soldiers  of  the  North  sprang,  not 
from  the  merchant  families,  but  from  the  farmer  folk. 
Without  special  merit  of  some  kind,  there  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  aristocracy. 

Many  American  men  and  women,  who  have  too 
little  nobility  of  soul  to  be  patriots,  and  too  little  un- 
derstanding to  see  that  theirs  is  already,  in  many  points, 
the  master  country  of  the  globe,  come  to  you,  and  be- 
wail the  fate  which  has  caused  them  to  be  born  citi- 
zens of  a  republic,  and  dwellers  in  a  country  where 
men  call  vices  by  their  names.  The  least  educated  of 
their  countrymen,  the  only  grossly  vulgar  class  that 
America  brings  forth,  they  fly  to  Europe  uto  escape 
democracy,"  and  pass  their  lives  in  Paris,  Pau,  or  Nice, 
living  libels  on  the  country  they  are  believed  to  repre- 
sent. 

Out  of  these  discordant  elements,  Cubans,  Knicker- 
bockers, Germans, Irish,  "first  families,"  "Petroleum," 
and  "Shoddy,"  we  are  forced  to  construct  our  compo- 
site idea — New  York.  The  Irish  numerically  predom- 
inate, but  we  have  no  experience  as  to  what  should  be 
the  moral  features  of  an  Irish  city,  for  Dublin  has  al- 
ways been  in  English  hands;  possibly  that  which  in 
New  York  appears  to  be  cosmopolitan  is  merely  Celtic. 
However  it  may  be,  this  much  is  clear,  that  the  hum- 
blest township  of  New  England  reflects  more  truly  the 
America  of  the  past,  the  most  chaotic  village  of  Ne- 
braska portrays  more  fully  the  hopes  and  tendencies 
of  the  America  of  the  future,  than  do  this  huge  State 
and  city.  » 

4* 


42  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

If  the  political  figure  of  New  York  is  not  encourag- 
ing, its  natural  beauty  is  singularly  great.  Those  who 
say  that  America  has  no  scenery,  forget  the  Hudson, 
while  they  can  never  have  explored  Lake  George, 
Lake  Champlain,  and  the  Mohawk.  That  Poole's  ex- 
quisite scene  from  the  "Decameron,"  "Philomela's 
Song,"  could  have  been  realized  on  earth,  I  never 
dreamt  until  I  saw  the  singers  at  a  ~Ne^  Yorker's  villa 
on  the  Hudson  grouped  in  the  deep  shades  of  a  glen, 
from  which  there  was  an  outlook  upon  the  basaltic 
palisades  and  lake-like  Tappan  Zee.  It  was  in  some 
such  spot  that  De  Tocqueville  wrote  the  brightest  of 
his  brilliant  letters — that  dated  "Sing  Sing" — for  he 
speaks  of  himself  as  lying  on  a  hill  that  overhung  the 
Hudson,  watching  the  white  sails  gleaming  in  the  hot 
sun,  and  trying  in  vain  to  fancy  what  became  of  the 
river  where  it  disappeared  in  the  blue  "Highlands." 

That  New  York  City  itself  is  full  of  beauty  the  view 
from  Castle  Garden  would  suffice  to  show;  and  by 
night  it  is  not  less  lovely  than  by  day.  The  harbor 
is  illuminated  by  the  colored  lanterns  of  a  thousand 
boats,  and  the  steam-whistles  tell  of  a  life  that  never 
sleeps.  The  paddles  of  the  steamers  seem  not  only  to 
beat  the  water,  but  to  stir  the  languid  air  and  so  pro- 
voke a  breeze,  and  the  lime-lights  at  the  Fulton  and 
Wall  Street  ferries  burn  so  brightly  that  in  the  warm 
glare  the  eye  reaches  through  the  still  night  to  the 
feathery  acacias  in  the  streets  of  Brooklyn.  The  view 
is  as  southern  as  the  people :  we  have  not  yet  found 
America. 


CAMBRIDGE   COMMENCEMENT.  43 

CHAPTER  V. 

CAMBRIDGE    COMMENCEMENT. 

"  OLD  CAMBRIDGE  !  Long  may  she  flourish  !"  pro- 
posed by  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
in  America,  and  drunk  standing,  with  three  cheers, 
by  the  graduates  and  undergraduates  of  Harvard,  is  a 
toast  that  sets  one  thinking. 

Cambridge  in  America  is  not  by  any  means  a  uni- 
versity of  to-day.  Harvard  College,  which,  being  the 
only  "house,"  has  engrossed  the  privileges,  funds, and 
titles  of  the  university,  was  founded  at  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  in  1636,  only  ninety  years  later  than  the  great- 
est and  wealthiest  college  of  our  Cambridge  in  old 
England.  Puritan  Harvard  was  the  sister  rather  than 
the  daughter  of  our  own  Puritan  Emmanuel.  Har- 
vard himself,  and  Dunster,  the  first  president  of  Har- 
vard's College,  were  among  the  earliest  of  the  scholars 
of  Emmanuel. 

A  toast  from  the  Cambridge  of  new  to  the  Cam- 
bridge of  old  England  is  one  from  younger  to  elder 
sister ;  and  Dr.  Wendell  Holmes,  "  The  Autocrat," 
said  as  much  in  proposing  it  at  the  Harvard  alumni 
celebration  of  1866. 

Like  other  old  institutions,  Harvard  needs  a  ten- 
days'  revolution :  academic  abuses  flourish  as  luxu- 
riantly upon  American  as  on  English  soil,  and  univer- 
sity difficulties  are  much  the  same  in  either  country. 
Here,  as  at  home,  the  complaint  is  that  the  men  come 
up  to  the  university  untaught.  To  all  of  them  their 
college  is  forced  for  a  time  to  play  the  high-school ;  to 
some  she  is  never  anything  more  than  school.  At  Har- 


44  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

vard  this  is  worse  than  with  ourselves :  the  average  age 
of  entry,  though  of  late  much  risen,  is  still  considerably 
under  eighteen. 

The  college  is  now  aiming  at  raising  gradually  the 
standard  of  entry:  when  once  all  are  excluded  save 
men,  and  thinking  men,  real  students,  such  as  those 
by  whom  some  of  the  new  Western  universities  are 
attended,  then  Harvard  hopes  to  leave  drill-teaching 
entirely  to  the  schools,  and  to  permit  the  widest  free- 
dom in  the  choice  of  studies  to  her  students. 

Harvard  is  not  blameless  in  this  matter.  Like  other 
universities,  she  is  conservative  of  bad  things  as  well 
as  good;  indeed,  ten  minutes  within  her  walls  would 
suffice  to  convince  even  an  Englishman  that  Harvard 
clings  to  the  times  before  the  Revolution. 

Her  conservatism  is  shown  in  many  trivial  things — 
in  the  dress  of  her  janitors  and  porters,  in  the  cut  of 
the  grass-plots  and  college  gates,  in  the  conduct  of  the 
Commencement  orations  in  the  chapel.  For  the  dainty 
little  dames  from  Boston  who  came  to  hear  their  friends 
and  brothers  recite  their  disquisitions  none  but  Latin 
programmes 'were  provided,  and  the  poor  ladies  were 
condemned  to  find  such  names  as  Bush,  Maurice,  Ben- 
jamin, Humphrey,  and  Underwood  among  the  gradu- 
ating youths,  distorted  into  Bvsh,  Mavritivs,  Beniamin, 
Hvmphredvs,  Vnderwood. 

This  conservatism  of  the  New  England  universities 
had  just  received  a  sharp  attack.  In  the  Commence- 
ment oration,  Dr.  Hedges,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Unitarian  Church,  had  strongly  pressed  the  necessity 
for  a  complete  freedom  of  study  after  entry,  a  liberty 
to  take  up  what  line  the  student  would,  to  be  examined 
and  to  graduate  in  what  he  chose.  He  had  instanced 
the  success  of  Michigan  University  consequent  upon 
the  adoption  of  this  plan ;  he  had  pointed  to  the  fact 


CAMBRIDGE    COMMENCEMENT.  45 

that  of  all  the  universities  in  America,  Michigan  alone 
drew  her  students  from  every  State.  President  Hill 
and  ex-President  Walker  had  indorsed  his  views. 

There  is  a  special  fitness  in  the  reformers  coming 
forward  at  this  time.  This  year  is  the  commencement 
of  a  new  era  at  Harvard,  for  at  the  request  of  the  col- 
lege staff,  the  connection  of  the  university  with  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  has  just  been  dis- 
solved, and  the  members  of  the  board  of  overseers  are 
in  future  to  be  elected  by  the  university,  instead  of 
being  nominated  by  the  State.  This  being  so,  the 
question  had  been  raised  as  to  whether  the  governor 
would  come  in  state  to  Commencement,  but  he  yielded 
to  the  wishes  of  the  graduates,  and  came  with  the 
traditional  pomp,  attended  by  a  staff  in  uniform,  and 
escorted  by  a  troop  of  Volunteer  Lancers,  whose  scarlet 
coats  and  polish  recalled  the  times  before  the  Revo- 
lution. 

While  the  ceremony  was  still  in  progress,  I  had 
been  introduced  to  several  of  the  foremost  rowing 
men  among  the  younger  graduates  of  Harvard,  and 
at  its  conclusion  I  accompanied  them  to  their  river. 
They  were  in  strict  training  for  their  university  race 
with  Yale,  which  was  to  come  off  in  a  week,  and  as 
Cambridge  had  been  beaten  twice  running,  and  this 
year  had  a  better  crew,  they  were  wishful  for  criticisms 
on  their  style.  Such  an  opinion  as  a  stranger  could 
offer  was  soon  given :  they  were  dashing,  fast,  long  in 
their  stroke;  strong,  considering  their  light  weights, 
but  terribly  overworked.  They  have  taken  for  a  rule 
the  old  English  notions  as  to  training  which  have  long 
since  disappeared  at  home,  and,  looked  upon  as  fa- 
natics by  their  friends  and  tutors,  they  have  all  the 
fanatic's  excess  of  zeal. 

Rowing  arid  other  athletics,  with  the  exceptions  of 


46  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

skating  and  base  ball,  are  both  neglected  and  despised 
in  America.  When  the  smallest  sign  of  a  reaction 
appears  in  the  New  England  colleges,  there  comes  at 
once  a  cry  from  Boston  that  brains  are  being  post- 
poned to  brawn.  If  New  Englanders  would  look 
about  them,  they  would  see  that  their  climate  has  of 
itself  developed  brains  at  the  expense  of  brawn,  and 
that  if  national  degeneracy  is  to  be  long  prevented, 
brawn  must  in  some  way  be  fostered.  The  high 
shoulder,  head-voice,  and  pallor  of  the  Boston  men 
are  not  incompatible  with  the  possession  of  the  most 
powerful  brain,  the  keenest  wit;  but  it  is  not  probable 
that  energy  and  talent  will  be  continued  in  future 
generations  sprung  from  the  worn-out  men  and  women 
of  to-day. 

The  prospect  at  present  is  not  bright ;  year  by  year 
Americans  grow  thinner,  lighter,  and  shorter-lived. 
^Elian's  Americans,  we  may  remember,  though  they 
were  greatly  superior  to  the  Greeks  in  stature,  were 
inferior  to  them  in  length  of  life.  The  women  show 
even  greater  signs  of  weakness  than  the  men,  and  the 
high,  undulating  tones  which  are  affectation  in  the 
French,  are  natural  to  the  ladies  of  America;  little  can 
be  expected  of  women  whose  only  exercise  is  excessive 
dancing  in  overheated  rooms. 

The  American  summer,  often  tropical  in  its  heat, 
has  much  to  answer  for,  but  it  is  the  winter  which 
makes  the  saddest  havoc  among  the  younger  people, 
and  the  boys  and  girls  at  school.  Cooped  up  all  day 
in  the  close  air  of  the  heated  school-house,  the  poor 
children  are  at  night  made  to  run  straight  back  to  the 
furnace-dried  atmosphere  of  home.  The  thermometer 
is  commonly  raised  indoors  to  eighty  or  ninety  degrees 
Fahr.  The  child  is  not  only  baked  into  paleness  and 
sweated  bit  by  bit  to  its  death,  but  fed  meantime,  out 


CAMBRIDGE    COMMENCEMENT.  47 

of  mistaken  kindness,  upon  the  most  indigestible  of 
dainties — pastry,  hot  dough-nuts,  and  sweetmeats 
taking  the  place  of  bread,  and  milk,  and  meat — and 
is  not  allowed  to  take  the  slightest  exercise,  except  its 
daily  run  to  school-house.  Who  can  wonder  that  spinal 
diseases  should  prevail  ? 

One  reason  why  Americans  are  pale  and  agueish  is 
that,  as  a  people,  they  are  hewers  of  primeval  forest 
and  tillers  of  virgin  soil.  These  are  the  unhealthiest 
employments  in  the  world ;  the  sun  darts  down  upon 
the  hitherto  unreached  mould,  and  sets  free  malarious 
gases,  against  which  the  new  settlers  have  no  an- 
tidotes. 

The  rowing  men  of  Harvard  tell  me  that  their  clubs 
are  still  looked  on.  somewhat  coldly  by  the  majority  of 
the  professors,  who  obstinately  refuse  to  see  that  im- 
proved physical  type  is  not  an  end,  but  a  means,  to- 
ward improvement  of  the  mental  faculties,  if  not  in 
the  present,  at  least  in  the  next  generation.  As  for 
the  moral  training  in  the  virtues  of  obedience  and 
command,  for  which  a  boat's  crew  is  the  best  of 
schools,  that  is  not  yet  understood  at  Harvard,  where 
rowing  is  confined  to  the  half  dozen  men  who  are  to 
represent  the  college  in  the  annual  race,  and  the  three 
or  four  more  who  are  being  trained  to  succeed  them 
in  the  crew.  Rowing  in  America  is  what  it  was  till 
ten  years  since  at  old  Cambridge,  and  is  still  at  Ox- 
ford— not  an  exercise  for  the  majority  of  the  students, 
but  a  pursuit  for  a  small  number.  Physical  culture 
is,  however,  said  to  be  making  some  small  progress  in 
the  older  States,  and  I  myself  saw  signs  of  the  tendency 
in  Philadelphia.  The  war  has  done  some  good  in  this 
respect,  and  so  has  the  influx  of  Canadians  to  Chicago. 
Cricket  is  still  almost  an  unknown  thing,  except  in 
some  few  cities.  When  I  was  coming  in  to  Baltimore 


48  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

by  train,  we  passed  a  meadow  in  which  a  match  was 
being  played.  A  Southerner  to  whom  I  was  talking 
at  the  time,  looked  at  the  players,  and  said  with  sur- 
prise: "  Reckon  they've  got  a  wounded  man  ther', 
front  o'  them  sticks,  sah."  I  found  that  he  meant  the 
batsman,  who  was  wearing  pads. 

One  of  the  most  brilliant  of  Harvard's  thinkers  has 
taken  to  carpentrying  as  a  relief  to  his  mental  toil; 
her  most  famed  professor  is  often  to  be  found  working 
in  his  garden  or  his  farm ;  but  such  change  of  work 
for  work  is  possible  only  to  certain  men.  The  gener- 
ality of  Americans  need  not  only  exercise,  but  relaxa- 
tion; still,  with  less  physical,  they  possess  greater 
mental  vitality  then  ourselves. 

On  the  day  that  follows  Commencement — the  chief 
ceremony  of  the  academic  year — is  held  once  in  three 
summers  the  "Alumni  Celebration,"  or  meeting  of  the 
past  graduates  of  Harvard — a  touching  gathering  at  all 
times,  but  peculiarly  so  in  these  times  that  follow  on 
the  losses  of  the  war. 

The  American  college  informal  organizations  rest 
upon  the  unit  of  the  "class."  The  "class"  is  what  at 
Cambridge  is  called  "men  of  the  same  year," — men 
who  enter  together  and  graduate  together  at  the  end 
of  the  regular  course.  Each  class  of  a  large  New  Eng- 
land college,  such  as  Harvardy  will  often  possess  an  as- 
sociation of  its  own;  its  members  will  dine  together 
once  in  live  years,  or  ten — men  returning  from  Europe 
and  from  the  far  West  to  be  present  at  the  gathering. 

Harvard  is  strong  in  the  affections  of  the  New 
England  people — her  faults  are  theirs;  they  love  her 
for  them,  and  keep  her  advantages  to  themselves,  for 
in  the  whole  list  of  graduates  for  this  year  I  could 
find  only  two  Irish  names. 

Here,  at  the  Alumni  Celebration,  a  procession  was 


CAMBRIDGE    COMMENCEMENT.  49 

marshaled  in  the  library  in  which  the  order  was  by 
classes;  the  oldest  class  of  which  there  were  living 
members  being  called  the  first.  "Class  of  1797!"  and 
two  old  white  haired  gentlemen  tottered  from  the 
crowd,  and  started  on  their  march  down  the  central 
aisle,  and  out  bareheaded  into  the  blaze  of  one  of  the 
hottest  days  that  America  had  ever  known.  "Class 
of  1800!"  missing  two  years,  in  which  all  the  gradu- 
ates were  dead;  and  out  came  one,  the  sole  survivor. 
Then  came  "1803,"  and  so  on,  to  the  stalwart  com- 
pany of  the  present  year.  When  the  classes  of  1859 
and  1860,  and  of  the  war-years  were  called,  those  who 
marched  out  showed  many  an  empty  sleeve. 

The  present  triennial  celebration  is  noteworthy  not 
only  for  the  efforts  of  the  university  reformers,  but 
also  for  the  foundation  of  the  Memorial  Hall,  dedicated 
as  a  monument  to  those  sons  of  Harvard  who  fell  while 
serving  their  country  in  the  suppression  of  the  late  re- 
bellion. The  purity  of  their  patriotism  hardly  needed 
illustration  by  the  fire  of  young  Everett,  or  the  graceful 
speech  of  Dr.  Holmes.  Even  the  splendid  oratory  of 
Governor  Bullock  could  do  little  more  than  force  us 
to  read  for  ourselves  the  Roll  of  Honor,  and  see  how 
many  of  Harvard's  most  distinguished  younger  men 
died  for  their  country  as  privates  of  Massachusetts 
Volunteers. 

There  was  a  time,  as  England  knows,  when  the 
thinking  men  of  Boston,  and  the  Cambridge  profes- 
sors, Emerson,  Russell  Lowell,  Asa  Gray,  and  a  dozen 
more  of  almost  equal  fame,  morally  seceded  from  their 
country's  councils,  and  were  followed  in  their  seces- 
sion by  the  younger  men.  "  The  best  men  in  America 
stand  aloof  from  politics,"  it  was  said. 

The  country  from  which  these  men  seceded  was  not 
the  America  of  to-day :  it  was  the  Union  which  South 

5 


50  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Carolina  ruled.  From  it  the  Cambridge  professors 
"came  out,"  not  because  they  feared  to  vex  their 
nerves  with  the  shock  of  public  argument  and  action, 
but  because  the  course  of  the  slaveholders  was  not 
their  course.  Hating  the  wrongs  they  saw  but  could 
not  remedy,  they  separated  themselves  from  the  wrong- 
doers ;  another  matter,  this,  from  the  "hating  hatred" 
of  our  culture  class  in  England. 

In  1863  and  1864  there  came  the  reckoning.  When 
America  was  first  brought  to  see  the  things  that  had 
been  done  in  her  name,  and  at  her  cost,  and,  rising  in 
her  hitherto  unknown  strength,  struck  the  noblest  blow 
for  freedom  that  the  world  has  seen,  the  men  who  had 
been  urging  on  the  movement  from  without  at  once 
re-entered  the  national  ranks,  and  marched  to  victory. 
Of  the  men  who  sat  beneath  Longfellow,  and  Agassiz, 
and  Emerson,  whole  battalions  went  forth  to  war. 
From  Oberlin  almost  every  male  student  and  professor 
marched,  and  the  university  teaching  was  left  in  the 
women's  hands.  Out  of  8000  school-teachers  in  Penn- 
sylvania, of  whom  800  alone  were  drafted,  3000  volun- 
teered for  the  war.  Everywhere  the  teachers  and  their 
students  were  foremost  among  the  Volunteers,  and  from 
that  time  forward  America  and  her  thinkers  were  at  one. 

The  fierce  passions  of  this  day  of  wakening  have 
not  been  suffered  to  disturb  the  quiet  of  the  academic 
town.  Our  English  universities  have  not  about  them 
the  classic  repose,  the  air  of  study,  that  belong  to  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts.  Those  who  have  seen  the 
lanes  of  Leyden,  and  compared  them  with  the  noisy 
Oxford  High  Street,  will  understand  what  I  mean 
when  I  say  that  our  Cambridge  conies  nearest  to  her 
daughter-town ;  but  even  the  English  Cambridge  has 
a  bustling  street  or  two,  and  a  weekly  market-day, 
while  Cambridge  in  New  England  is  one  great  aca- 


CAMBRIDGE    COMMENCEMENT.          51 

demic  grove,  buried  in  a  philosophic  calm  which  our 
university  towns  can  never  rival  so  long  as  men  resort 
to  them  for  other  purposes  than  work. 

It  is  not  only  in  the  Harvard  precincts  that  the  old- 
ness  of  New  England  is  to  be  remarked.  Although 
her  people  are  everywhere  in  the  vanguard  of  all  pro- 
gress, their  country  has  a  look  of  gable-ends  and 
steeple-hats,  while  their  laws  seem  fresh  from  the 
hands  of  Alfred.  In  all  England  there  is  no  city  which 
has  suburbs  so  gray  and  venerable  as  are  the  elm- 
shaded  towns  round  Boston :  Dorchester,  Chelsea,  Va- 
liant, and  Salem,  each  seems  more  ancient  than  its  fel- 
low; the  people  speak  the  English  of  Elizabeth,  and 
joke  about  us,  " speaks  good  English  for  an  Eng- 
lishman." 

In  the  country  districts,  the  winsome  villages  that 
nestle  in  the  dells  seem  to  have  been  there  for  ten  cen- 
turies at  least;  and  it  gives  one  a  shock  to  light  on 
such  a  spot  as  Bloody  Brook,  and  to  be  told  that  only 
one  hundred  and  ninety  years  ago  Captain  Lathrop  was 
slain  there  by  Red  Indians,  with  eighty  youths,  "  the 
flower  of  Essex  County,"  as  the  Puritan  history  says. 

The  warnings  of  Dr.  Hedges,  in  reference  to  the 
strides  of  Michigan,  have  taken  the  New  Englanders 
by  surprise.  Secure,  as  they  believed,  in  their  intel- 
lectual supremacy,  they  forgot  that  in  a  Federal  Union 
the  moral  and  physical  primacy  will  generally  both 
reside  in  the  same  State.  The  Commonwealth  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, at  one  time  the  foremost  upholder  of  the 
doctrine  of  State  rights,  will  soon  be  seen  once  more 
acting  as  its  champion — this  time  on  behalf  of  herself 
and  her  five  sister  States. 

Were  the  six  New  England  Commonwealths  grouped 
together  in  a  single  State,  it  would  still  have  only  three- 
fourths  of  the  population  of  New  York,  and  about  an 


52  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

equal  number  of  inhabitants  with  Pennsylvania.  The 
State  of  Rhode  Island  is  one-fourth  the  size  of  many  a 
single  Californian  county.  Such  facts  as  these  will 
not  be  long  lost  sight  of  in  the  West,  and  when  a 
divergence  of  interests  springs  up,  Ohio  will  not  suffer 
her  voice  in  the  Senate  to  continue  to  be  neutralized 
by  that  of  Connecticut  or  Rhode  Island.  Even  if  the 
Seriate  be  allowed  to  remain  untouched,  it  is  certain 
that  the  redistribution  of  seats  consequent  upon  the 
census  of  1870  will  completely  transfer  political  power 
to  the  central  States.  That  New  England  will  by  this 
change  inevitably  lose  her  hold  upon  the  destinies  of 
the  whole  Union  is  not  so  clear.  The  influence  for 
good  of  New  England  upon  the  West  has  been  chiefly 
seminal;  but  not  for  that  the  less  enormous.  Go  into 
a  State  such  as  Michigan,  where  half  the  people  are 
immigrants  —  where,  of  the  remaining  moiety,  the 
greater  part  are  born  Westerners,  and  apparently  in 
no  way  of  New  England — and  you  will  find  that  the 
inhabitants  are  for  the  most  part  earnest,  God-fearing 
men,  with  a  New  England  tone  of  profound  manliness 
and  conviction  running  through  everything  they  say 
and  do.  The  colleges  in  which  they  have  been  reared 
are  directed,  you  will  find,  by  New  England  professors, 
men  trained  in  the  classic  schools  of  Harvard,  Yale, 
or  Amherst ;  the  ministers  under  whom  they  sit  are, 
for  the  most  part,  Boston  men ;  the  books  they  read 
are  of  New  England,  or  old  English  of  the  class  from 
which  the  writers  of  the  Puritan  States  themselves 
have  drawn  their  inspiration.  To  New  England  is 
chiefly  due,  in  short,  the  making  of  America  a  godly 
nation. 

It  is  something  in  this  age  to  come  across  a  people 
who  believe  strongly  in  anything,  and  consistently  act 
upon  their  beliefs:  the  New  Englanders  are  such  a 


CAMBRIDGE   COMMENCEMENT.  53 

race.  Thoroughly  God-fearing  States  are  not  so  com- 
mon that  we  can  afford  to  despise  them  when  found; 
and  nowhere  does  religion  enter  more  into  daily  life 
than  in  Vermont  or  Massachusetts. 

The  States  of  the  Union  owe  so  huge  a  debt  of  grat- 
itude to  New  England,  that  on  this  score  alone  they 
may  refrain  from  touching  her  with  sacrilegious  hands. 
Not  to  name  her  previous  sacrifices,  the  single  little 
State  of  Massachusetts — one-fourth  the  size  of  Scot- 
land, and  but  half  as  populous  as  Paris — sent  during 
the  rebellion  a  hundred  and  fifty  regiments  to  the 
field. 

It  was  to  Boston  that  Lincoln  telegraphed  when,  in 
1861,  at  a  minute's  notice,  he  needed  men  for  the  de- 
fense of  Washington.  So  entirely  were  Southerners 
of  the  opinion  that  the  New  Englanders  were  the  true 
supporters  of  the  old  flag,  that  "  Yankee"  became  a 
general  term  for  loyalists  of  any  State.  America  can 
never  forget  the  steady  heroism  of  New  England 
during  the  great  struggle  for  national  existence. 

The  unity  that  has  been  the  chief  cause  of  the 
strength  of  the  New  England  influence  is  in  some 
measure  sprung  from  the  fact  that  these  six  States  are 
completely  shut  off  from  all  America  by  the  single 
State  of  New  York,  alien  from  them  in  political  and 
moral  life.  Every  Yankee  feels  his  country  bounded 
by  the  British,  the  Irish,  and  the  sea. 

In  addition  to  the  homogeneousness  of  isolation,  the 
New  Englanders,  like  the  Northern  Scotch,  have  the 
advantages  of  a  bad  climate  and  a  miserable  soil. 
These  have  been  the  true  agents  in  the  development 
of  the  energy,  the  skill,  and  fortitude  of  the  Yankee 
people.  In  the  war,  for  instance,  it  was  plain  that  the 
children  of  the  poor  and  rugged  Northeastern  States 
were  not  the  men  to  be  beaten  by  the  lotus-eaters  of 

5* 


54  GEEATER    BRITAIN. 

Louisiana  when  they  were  doing  battle  for  what  they 
believed  to  be  a  righteous  cause. 

One  effect  of  the  poverty  of  soil  with  which  New 
England  is  afflicted  has  been  that  her  sons  have  wan- 
dered from  end  to  end  of  the  known  world,  engaging 
in  every  trade,  and  succeeding  in  all.  Sometimes  there 
is  in  their  migrations  a  religious  side.  Mormonism, 
although  it  now  draws  its  forces  from  Great  Britain, 
was  founded  in  New  England.  At  Brindisi,  on  my 
way  home,  I  met  three  Yankees  returning  from  a 
Maine  colony  lately  founded  at  Jaffa,  in  expectation  of 
the  fulfillment  of  prophecy,  and  destruction  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan rule.  For  the  moment  they  are  intriguing 
for  a  firman  from  the  very  government  upon  the  com- 
ing fall  of  which  all  their  expectations  have  been  based; 
and  these  fierce  fanatics  are  making  money  by  man- 
aging a  hotel.  One  of  them  told  me  that  the  Jaffa 
colony  is  a  "  religio-commercial  speculation." 

New  England  Yankees  are  not  always  so  filled  with 
the  Puritan  spirit  as  to  reject  unlawful  means  of 
money-making.  Even  the  Massachusetts  common 
schools  and  prim  Connecticut  meeting-houses  turn  out 
their  black  sheep  into  the  world.  At  Center  Harbor, 
in  New  Hampshire,  I  met  with  an  example  of  the 
"Yankee  spawn"  in  a  Maine  man — a  shrewd,  sailor- 
looking  fellow.  He  was  sitting  next  me  at  the  ordi- 
nary, and  asked  me  to  take  a  glass  of  his  champagne. 
I  declined,  but  chatted,  and  let  out  that  I  was  a  Brit- 
isher. 

"I  was  subject  to  your  government  once  for  sixteen 
months,"  my  neighbor  said. 

"Really!     Where?" 

"  Sierra  Leone.  I  was  a  prisoner  there.  And  very 
lucky,  too." 

"Why  so?"  I  asked. 


CANADA.  55 

"Because,  if  the  American  government  had  caught 
me,  they  would  have  hanged  me  for  a  pirate.  But  / 
wasn't  a  pirate." 

With  over -great  energy  I  struck  in,  "Of  course 
not." 

My  Neighbor. — "No;  I  was  a  slaver.3' 

Idling  among  the  hills  of  New  Hampshire  and  the 
lakes  of  Maine,  it  is  impossible  for  a  stranger,  starting 
free  from  prejudice,  not  to  end  by  loving  the  pious 
people  of  New  England,  for  he  will  see  that  there 
could  be  no  severer  blow  to  the  cause  of  freedom 
throughout  the  world  than  the  loss  by  them  of  an 
influence  upon  American  life  and  thought,  which  has 
been  one  of  unmixed  good.  Still,  New  England  is 
not  America. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

CANADA. 

THERE  is  not  in  the  world  a  nobler  outlook  than 
that  from  off  the  terrace  at  Quebec.  You  stand  upon 
a  rock  overhanging  city  and  river,  and  look  down 
upon  the  guardship's  masts.  Acre  upon  acre  of  tim- 
ber comes  floating  down  the  stream  above  the  city,  the 
Canadian  songs  just  reaching  you  upon  the  heights; 
and  beneath  you  are  fleets  of  great  ships,  English, 
German,  French,  and  Dutch,  embarking  the  timber 
from  the  floating-docks.  The  Stars  and  Stripes  are 
nowhere  to  be  seen.  Such  are  the  distances  in  North 
America,  that  here,  farther  from  the  sea  than  is  any 


56  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

city  in  Europe  west  of  Moscow,  we  have  a  seaport 
town,  with  gunboats  and  three-decker;  morning  and 
evening  guns,  and  bars  of  "God  save  the  Queen,"  to 
mark  the  opening  and  closing  of  the  port. 

The  St.  Lawrence  runs  in  a  chasm  in  a  flat  table- 
land, through  which  some  earlier  Niagara  seems  to 
have  cut  for  it  a  way.  Some  of  the  tributaries  are 
in  sight,  all  falling  from  a  cliff  into  the  deep  still 
river.  In  the  distance,  seaward,  a  silver  ribbon  on 
the  rock  represents  the  grand  falls  of  Montmorenci. 
Long  villages  of  white  tiny  cots  straggle  along  the 
roads  that  radiate  from  the  city;  the  great  black 
cross  of  the  French  parish  church  showing  reverently 
from  all. 

On  the  north,  the  eye  reaches  to  the  rugged  outlines 
of  the  Laurentian  range,  composed  of  the  oldest  mount- 
ains in  the  world,  at  the  foot  of  which  is  Lake  St. 
Charles,  full  of  fiord-like  northern  beauty,  where  at  a 
later  time  I  learnt  to  paddle  the  Indian  canoe  of  birch 
bark. 

Leaving  the  citadel,  we  are  at  once  in  the  European 
middle  ages.  Gates  and  posterns,  cranky  steps  that 
lead  up  to  lofty  gabled  houses,  with  sharp  French  roofs 
of  burnished  tin,  like  those  of  Liege;  processions  of 
the  Host;  altars  decked  with  flowers;  statues  of  the 
Virgin ;  sabots ;  blouses ;  and  the  scarlet  of  the  Brit- 
ish linesman, — all  these  are  seen  in  narrow  streets  and 
markets,  that  are  graced  with  many  a  Cotentin  lace 
cap,  and  all  within  forty  miles  of  the  down-east  Yan- 
kee State  of  Maine.  It  is  not  far  from  JSTew  England 
to  old  France. 

Quebec  Lower  Town  is  very  like  St.  Peter  Port  in 
Guernsey.  Norman- French  inhabitants,  guarded  by 
British  troops,  step-built  streets,  thronged  fruit-market, 
and  citadel  upon  a  rock,  frowning  down  upon  the  quays, 


CANADA.  57 

arc  alike  in  each.  A  slight  knowledge  of  the  Upper 
Normandy  patois  is  not  without  its  use;  it  procured 
me  an  offer  of  a  pinch  of  snuff  from  an  old  habitante  on 
board  one  of  the  river  boats.  Her  gesture  was  worthy 
of  the  ancien  regime. 

There  has  been  no  dying-out  of  the  race  among  the 
French  Canadians.  They  number  twenty  times  the 
thousands  that  they  did  a  hundred  years  ago.  The 
American  soil  has  left  their  physical  type,  religion, 
language,  laws,  and  habits  absolutely  untouched. 
They  herd  together  in  their  rambling  villages,  dance 
to  the  fiddle,  after  mass  on  Sundays,  as  gayly  as  once 
did  their  Norman  sires,  and  keep  up  the  fleur-de-lys 
and  the  memory  of  Montcalm.  More  French  than  the 
French  are  the  Lower  Canadian  habitants. 

Not  only  here,  but  everywhere,  a  French  "  depend- 
ency" is  France  transported;  not  a  double  of  the 
France  of  to-day,  but  a  mummy  of  the  France  of  the 
time  of  the  "colony's"  foundation.  In  Saigon,  you 
find  Imperial  France;  here  the  France  of  Louis  Qua- 
torze.  The  Englishman  founds  everywhere  a  New 
England — new  in  thought  as  in  soil ;  the  Frenchman 
carries  with  him  to  California,  to  Japan,  an  undying 
recollection  of  the  Palais  Royal.  In  San  Francisco 
there  lives  a  great  French  capitalist,  who,  since  1849, 
has  been  the  originator  of  every  successful  Californian 
speculation.  He  cannot  speak  a  word  of  English,  and 
his  greatest  pleasure,  in  a  country  of  fruits  and  wine, 
is  to  bid  his  old  French  servant  assure  him,  upon  honor, 
that  his  whole  dessert,  from  his  claret  to  his  olives,  has 
been  brought  for  him  from  France.  There  is  much  in 
the  colonizing  instinct  of  our  race,  but  something,  per- 
haps, in  the  consideration  that  the  English  are  hardly 
happy  enough  at  home  to  be  always  looking  back  to 
what  they  have  left  in  the  old  country. 


58  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

There  is  about  this  old  France  something  of  Dutch 
sleepiness  and  content.  There  is,  indeed,  some  bustle 
in  the  market-place,  where  the  grand  old  dames,  in 
snowy  caps,  sit  selling  plums  and  pears;  there  is  much 
singing  made  over  the  lading  of  the  timber-ships; 
there  are  rafts  in  hundreds  gliding  down  the  river; 
old  French  carts  in  dozens,  creaking  and  wheezing  on 
their  lumbering  way  to  town,  with  much  clacking  of 
whips  and  clappering  of  wooden  shoes.  All  these 
things  there  are,  but  then  there  are  these  and  more  in 
Dol,  and  Quimper,  and  Morlaix — in  all  those  towns 
which  in  Europe  come  nearest  to  old  France.  There 
is  quiet  bustle,  subdued  trade,  prosperity  deep,  not 
noisy;  but  the  life  is  sleepy;  the  rafts  float,  and  are 
not  tugged  nor  rowed ;  the  old  Norman  horses  seem 
to  draw  the  still  older  carts  without  an  effort,  and  the 
very  boys  wear  noisy  shoes  against  their  will,  and 
make  a  clatter  simply  because  they  cannot  help  it. 

In  such  a  scene  it  is  impossible  to  forget  that  British 
troops  are  here  employed  as  guardians  of  the  only 
true  French  colony  in  the  world  against  the  inroads  of 
the  English  race.  uNos  institutions,  notre  langue, 
nos  lois,"  is  the  motto  of  the  habitants.  Their  news- 
papers are  filled  with  church  celebrations,  village  fetes, 
speeches  of  "M.  le  Cure*"  at  the  harvest-home,  an- 
nouncements by  the  "  scherif,"  speech  of  M.  Cartier 
at  the  consecration  of  MonseigneurLaroque,  blessings 
of  bells,  of  ships;  but  of  life,  nothing — of  mention  of 
what  is  passing  in  America,  not  a  word.  One  corner 
is  given  to  the  world  outside  America:  "Emprunt 
Pontifical,  Emission  Ame'ricaine,  quatre  millions  de 
piastres,"  heads  a  solid  column  of  holy  finance.  The 
pulse-beat  of  the  continent  finds  no  echo  here. 

It  is  not  only  in  political  affairs  that  there  is  a  want 
of  energy  in  French  or  Lower  Canada;  in  journeying 


CANADA.  •  59 

from  Portland  to  Quebec,  the  moment  the  frontier  was 
passed,  we  seemed  to  have  come  from  a  land  of  life  to 
one  of  death.  No  more  bustling  villages,  no  more 
keen-eyed  farmers :  a  fog  of  uuenterprise  hung  over 
the  land ;  roads  were  wanting,  houses  rude,  swamps 
undrained,  fields  unweeded,  plains  untilled. 

If  the  Eastern  Townships  and  country  round  Quebec 
are  a  wilderness,  they  are  not  a  desert.  The  country 
on  the  Saguenay  is  both.  At  Quebec  in  summer  it  is 
hot — mosquitoes  are  not  unknown  :  even  at  Tadousac, 
where  the  Saguenay  flows  into  the  St.  Lawrence,  there 
is  sunlight  as  strong  as  that  of  Paris.  Once  in  the 
northern  river,  all  is  cold,  gloomy,  arctic — no  house, 
no  boat,  no  sign  of  man's  existence,  no  beasts,  no 
birds,  although  the  St.  Lawrence  swarms  with  duck 
and  loons.  The  river  is  a  straight,  cold,  black  fiord, 
walled  in  by  tremendous  cliffs,  which  go  sheer  down 
into  depths  to  which  their  height  above  water  is  as 
nothing ;  two  walls  of  rock,  and  a  path  of  ice-cold, 
inky  water.  Fish  there  are,  seal  and  salmon — that  is 
all.  The  "whales  and  porpoises,"  which  are  advertised 
by  the  Tadousac  folks  as  certain  to  "  disport  them- 
selves daily  in  front  of  the  hotel,"  are  never  to  be  seen 
in  this  earth-crack  of  the  Saguenay. 

The  cold,  for  summer,  was  intense;  nowhere  in  the 
world  does  the  limit  of  ever-frozen  ground  come  so 
far  south  as  in  the  longitude  of  the  Saguenay.  At 
night  we  had  a  wonderful  display  of  northern  lights. 
A  white  column,  towering  to  the  mid-skies,  rose,  died 
away,  and  was  succeeded  by  broad  white  clouds, 
stretching  from  east  to  west,  arid  sending  streamers 
northward.  Suddenly  there  shot  up  three  fresh  silvery 
columns  in  the  north,  northwest,  and  northeast,  on 
which  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  danced  and  played. 
After  moonrise,  the  whole  seemed  gradually  to  fade 
away. 


60  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

At  Ha  Ha  Bay,  the  head  of  navigation,  I  found  a 
fur-buying  station  of. the  Hudson's  Bay  Company;  but 
that  association  has  enough  to  answer  for  without 
being  charged  with  the  desolation  of  the  Saguenay. 
The  company  has  not  here,  as  upon  the  Red  River, 
sacrificed  colonists  to  minks  and  silver-foxes.  There 
is  something  more  blighting  than  a  monopoly  that  op- 
presses Lower  Canada.  As  I  returned  to  Quebec,  the 
boat  that  I  was  aboard  touched  at  St.  Paschal,  now 
called  Riviere  du  Loup,  the  St.  Lawrence  terminus  of 
the  Grand  Trunk  line :  we  found  there  immense 
wharves,  and  plenty  of  bells  and  crosses,  but  not  a 
single  ship,  great  or  small.  Even  in  Virginia  I  had 
seen  nothing  more  disheartening. 

North  of  the  St.  Lawrence  religion  is  made  to  play 
as  active  a  part  in  politics  as  in  the  landscape.  Lower 
Canada,  as  we  have  seen,  is  French  and  Catholic ;  Up- 
per Canada  is  Scotch  and  Presbyterian,  though  the 
Episcopalians  are  strong  in  wealth  and  the  Irish  Cath- 
olics in  numbers. 

Had  the  Catholics  been  united,  they  might,  since 
the  fusion  of  the  two  Canadas,  have  governed  the 
whole  country:  as  it  is,  the  Irish  and  French  neither 
worship  nor  vote  together,  and  of  late  the  Scotch  have 
had  nearly  their  own  way. 

Finding  themselves  steadily  losing  ground,  the 
French  threw  in  their  lot  with  the  scheme  for  the  con- 
federation of  the  provinces,  and  their  clergy  took  up 
the  cause  with  a  zeal  which  they  justified  to  their  flocks 
by  pointing  out  that  the  alternative  was  annexation 
to  America,  and  possible  confiscation  of  the  church 
lands. 

Confederation  of  the  provinces  means  separation  of 
the  Canadas,  which  regain  each  its  Parliament;  and 
the  French  Catholics  begin  to  hope  that  the  Irish  of 


CANADA.  61 

Upper  Canada,  now  that  they  are  less  completely  over- 
shaded  by  the  more  numerous  French,  will  again  act 
with  their  co-religionists:  the  Catholic  vote  in  the  new 
confederation  will  be  nearly  half  the  whole.  In  To- 
ronto, however,  the  Fenians  are  strong,  and  even  in 
Montreal  their  presence  is  not  unknown  :  it  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  the  whole  of  the  Canadian  Irish  are  not 
disaffected.  The  Irish  of  the  chief  city  have  their 
Irish  priests,  their  cathedral  of  St.  Patrick,  while  the 
French  have  theirs  upon  the  Place  d'Armes.  The 
want  of  union  may  save  the  dominion  from  the  estab- 
lishment of  Catholicism  as  a  State  Church. 

The  confederation  of  our  provinces  was  necessary, 
if  British  North  America  was  to  have  a  chance  for 
life ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  accomplished  while 
British  Columbia  and  the  Red  Eiver  tract  are  not  in- 
cluded. To  give  Canada  an  outlet  on  one  side  is  some- 
thing, but  communication  with  the  Atlantic  is  a  small 
matter  by  the  side  of  communication  at  once  with  At- 
lantic and  Pacific  through  British  territory.  We  shall 
soon  have  railways  from  Halifax  to  Lake  Superior,  and 
thence  to  the  Pacific  is  but  1600  miles.  It  is  true  that 
the  line  is  far  north,  and  exposed  to  heavy  snows  and 
bitter  cold ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  well  supplied 
with  wood,  and  if  it  possess  no  such  fertile  tracts  as 
that  of  Kansas  and  Colorado,  it  at  least  escapes  the 
frightful  wilds  of  Bitter  Creek  and  Mirage  Plains. 

We  are  now  even  left  in  doubt  how  long  we  shall 
continue  to  possess  so  much  as  a  route  across  the  con- 
tinent on  paper.  Since  the  cession  of  Russian  Amerrca 
to  the  United  States,  a  map  of  North  America  has 
been  published  in  which  the  name  of  the  Great  Re- 
public sprawls  across  the  continent  from  Beh ring's 
Straits  to  Mexico,  with  the  "E"  in  "United"  omin- 
ously near  Vancouver's  Island,  and  the  "  T"  actually 

6 


62  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

planted  upon  British  territory.  If  we  take  up  the 
British  Columbian,  we  find  the  citizens  of  the  mainland 
portion  of  the  province  proposing  to  sell  the  island  for 
twenty  million  dollars  to  the  States. 

Settled  chiefly  by  Americans  from  Oregon  and  Cali- 
fornia, and  situated,  for  purposes  of  reinforcement, 
immigration,  and  supply,  at  a  distance  of  not  less  than 
twenty  thousand  miles  from  home,  the  British  Pacific 
colonies  can  hardly  be  considered  strong  in  their  al- 
legiance to  the  crown:  we  have  here  the  reductio  ad 
absurdum  of  home  government. 

Our  hindering  trade,  by  tolerating  the  presence  of 
two  sets  of  custom-houses  and  two  sets  of  coins  be- 
tween Halifax  and  Lake  Superior,  was  less  absurd 
than  our  altogether  preventing  its  extension  now. 
Under  a  so-called  confederation  of  our  American  pos- 
sessions, we  have  left  a  country  the  size  of  civilized 
Europe,  and  nearly  as  large  as  the  United  States — 
lying,  too,  upon  the  track  of  commerce  and  highroad 
to  China — to  be  despotically  governed  by  a  company 
of  traders  in  skins  and  peltries,  and  to  remain  as  long 
as  it  so  pleases  them  in  the  dead  stillness  and  desertion 
needed  to  insure  the  presence  of  fur-bearing  beasts. 

"Red  River"  should  be  a  second  Minnesota,  Halifax 
a  second  Liverpool,  Esquimault  a  second  San  Fran- 
cisco; but  double  government  has  done  its  work,  and 
the  outposts  of  the  line  of  trade  are  already  in  Amer- 
ican, not  British  hands.  The  gold  mines  of  Nova 
Scotia,  the  coal  mines  and  forests  of  British  Columbia, 
art}  owned  in  New  England  and  New  York,  and  the 
Californians  are  expecting  the  proclamation  of  an 
American  territorial  government  in  the  capital  of  Van- 
couver's Island. 

As  Montana  becomes  peopled  up,  we  shall  hear  of 
the  "colonization"  of  Red  River  by  citizens  of  the 


CANADA.  63 

United  States,  such  as  preceded  the  hoisting  of  the 
"  lone  star"  in  Texas,  and  the  "  bear  flag"  in  California, 
by  Fremont;  and  resistance  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany will  neither  be  possible,  nor,  in  the  interests  of 
civilization,  desirable. 

Even  supposing  a  great  popular  awakening  upon 
colonial  questions,  and  the  destruction  of  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  monopoly,  we  never  could  make  the  Cana- 
dian dominion  strong.  With  the  addition  of  Columbia 
and  Red  River,  British  America  would  hardly  be  as 
powerful  or  populous  as  the  two  Northwestern  States 
of  Ohio  and  Illinois,  or  the  single  State  of  New  York 
— one  out  of  forty-five.  "Help  us  for  ten  years,  and 
then  we'll  help  ourselves,"  the  Canadians  say;  "help 
us  to  become  ten  millions,  and  then  we  will  stand 
alone;"  but  this  becoming  ten  millions  is  not  such  an 
easy  thing. 

The  ideas  of  most  of  us  as  to  the  size  of  the  British 
territories  are  derived  from  maps  of  North  America, 
made  upon  Mercator's  projection,  which  are  grossly 
out  in  high  latitudes,  though  correct  at  the  equator. 
The  Cauadas  are  made  to.  appear  at  least  twice  their 
proper  size,  and  such  gigantic  proportions  are  given 
to  the  northern  parts  of  the  Hudson  territory  that  we 
are  tempted  to  believe  that  in  a  country  so  vast  there 
must  be  some  little  value.  The  true  size  is  no  more 
shown  upon  the  map  than  is  the  nine-months'  winter. 

To  Upper  Canada,  which  is  no  bad  country,  it  is 
not  for  lack  of  asking  that  population  fails  to  come. 
Admirably  executed  gazettes  give  the  fullest  informa- 
tion about  the  British  possessions  in  the  most  glowing 
of  terms;  offices  and  agencies  are  established  in  Liver- 
pool, London,  Cork,  Londonderry,  and  a  dozen  other 
cities;  government  immigration  agents  and  informa- 
tion offices  are  to  be  found  in  every  town  in  Canada ; 


64  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  government  immigrant  is  looked  after  in  health, 
comfort,  and  religion;  directions  of  the  fullest  kind 
are  given  him  in  the  matters  of  money,  clothes,  tools, 
luggage;  Canada,  he  is  told  by  the  government  papers, 
possesses  perfect  religious,  political,  and  social  free- 
dom; British  subjects  step  at  once  into  the  possession 
of  political  rights;  the  winter  is  but  bracing,  the  cli- 
mate the  healthiest  in  the  world.  Millions  of  acres 
of  surveyed  crown  lands  are  continually  in  the  market. 
To  one  who  knows  what  the  northern  forests  are  there 
is  perhaps  something  of  satire  in  the  statement  that 
" there  is  generally  on  crown  lands  an  unlimited  sup- 
ply of  the  best  fuel. "  What  of  that,  however  ?  The  in- 
tending immigrant  knows  nothing  of  the  struggle  with 
the  woods,  and  fuel  is  fuel  in  Old  England.  The  mining 
of  the  precious  metals,  the  fisheries,  petroleum,  all  are 
open  to  the  settler — let  him  but  come.  Reading  these 
documents,  we  can  only  rub  our  eyes,  and  wonder  how 
it  is  that  human  selfishness  allows  the  Canadian  of- 
ficials to  disclose  the  wonders  of  their  El  Dorado  to 
the  outer  world,  and  invite  all  men  to  share  blessings 
which  we  should  have  expected  them  to  keep  as  a 
close  preserve  for  themselves  and  their  nearest  and 
dearest  friends.  Taxation  in  the  States,  the  immi- 
grants are  told,  is  five  and  a  half  times  what  it  is  in 
Canada,  two  and  a  half  times  the  English  rate.  La- 
borers by  the  thousand,  merchants  and  farmers  by  the 
score,  are  said  to  be  flocking  into  Canada  to  avoid  the 
taxation  of  the  Radicals.  The  average  duration  of  life 
in  Canada  is  37  per  cent,  higher  than  in  the  States. 
Yet,  in  the  face  of  all  these  facts,  only  twenty  or  two 
and  twenty  thousand  immigrants  come  to  Canada  for 
three  hundred  thousand  that  flock  annually  to  the 
States,  and  of  the  former  many  thousands  do  but  pass 
through  on  their  way  to  the  Great  West.  Of  the 


CANADA.  65 

twenty  thousand  who  land  at  Quebec  in  each  year, 
but  four  and  a  half  thousand  remain  a  year  in  Canada; 
and  there  are  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  persons  born  in 
British  America  now  naturalized  in  the  United  States. 

The  passage  of  the  immigrants  to  the  Western 
States  is  not  for  want  of  warning.  The  Canadian 
government  advertise  every  Coloradan  duel,  every 
lynching  in  Montana,  every  Opposition  speech  in  Kan- 
sas, by  way  of  teaching  the  immigrants  to  respect  the 
country  of  which  they  are  about  to  become  free 
citizens. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  fact,  that  these  strange  state- 
ments are  not  harmless — not  harmless  to  Canada,  I 
mean.  The  Provincial  government  by  these  publica- 
tions seems  to'  confess  to  the  world  that  Canada  can 
live  only  by  running  down  the  great  republic.  Cana- 
dian sympathy  for  the  rebellion  tends  to  make  us  think 
that  these  northern  statesmen  must  not  only  share  in 
our  old-world  confusion  of  the  notions  of  right  and 
wrong,  but  must  be  sadly  short-sighted  into  the  bar- 
gain. It  is  only  by  their  position  that  they  are  blinded, 
for  few  countries  have  abler  men  than  Sir  James  Mac- 
donald,  or  sounder  statesmen  than  Cartier  or  Gait;  but, 
like  men  standing  on  the  edge  of  a  cliff,  Canadian 
statesmen  are  always  wanting  to  jump  off.  Had  Great 
Britain  left  them  to  their  own  devices,  we  should  have 
had  war  with  America  in  the  spring  of  1866. 

The  position  of  Canada  is  in  many  ways  anomalous : 
of  the  two  chief  sections  of  our  race — that  in  Britain 
and  that  in  America — the  latter  is  again  split  in  twain, 
and  one  division  governed  from  across  the  Atlantic. 
For  such  government  there  is  no  pretext,  except  the 
wishes  of  the  governed,  who  gain  by  the  connection 
men  for  their  defense,  and  the  opportunity  of  gratify- 
ing their  spite  for  their  neighbors  at  our  expense. 

6* 


66  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

Those  who  ask  why  a  connection  so  one-sided,  so  op- 
posed to  the  best  interests  of  our  race,  should  be  suf- 
fered to  continue,  are  answered,  now  that  the  argument 
of  "  prestige"  is  given  up,  that  the  Canadians  are  loyal, 
and  that  they  hate  the  Americans,  to  whom,  were  it 
not  for  us,  they  must  inevitably  fall.  That  the  Cana- 
dians hate  the  Americans  can  be  no  reason  why  we 
should  spend  blood  and  treasure  in  protecting  them 
against  the  consequences  of  their  hate.  The  world 
should  have  passed  the  time  when  local  dislikes  can  be 
suffered  to  affect  our  policy  toward  the  other  sections 
of  our  race ;  but  even  were  it  otherwise,  it  is  hard  to 
see  how  twelve  thousand  British  troops,  or  a  royal 
standard  hoisted  at  Ottawa,  can  protect  a  frontier  of 
two  thousand  miles  in  length  from  a -nation  of  five 
and  thirty  millions.  Canada,  perhaps,  can  defend  her- 
self, but  we  most  certainly  cannot  defend  her;  we  pro- 
voke much  more  than  we  assist. 

As  for  Canadian  "loyalty,"  it  appears  to  consist 
merely  of  hatred  toward  America,  for  while  we  were 
fighting  China  and  conquering  Japan,  that  we  might 
spread  free  trade,  our  loyal  colonists  of  Canada  set 
upon  our  goods  protective  duties  of  20  per  cent,  which 
they  have  now  in  some  degree  removed,  only  that 
they  may  get  into  their  hands  the  smuggling  trade 
carried  on  in  breach  of  the  laws  of  our  ally,  their 
neighbor.  We  might,  at  least,  fairly  insist  that  the 
connection  should  cease,  unless  Canada  will  entirely 
remove  her  duties. 

At  bottom,  it  would  seem  as  though  no  one  gained 
by  the  retention  of  our  hold  on  Canada.  Were  she 
independent,  her  borders  would  never  again  be  wasted 
by  Fenian  hordes,  and  she  would  escape  the  terrible 
danger  of  being  the  battle-field  in  which  European 
quarrels  are  fought  out.  Canada  once  republican,  the 


CANADA.  67 

Monroe  doctrine  would  be  satisfied,  and  its  most  vio- 
lent partisans  would  cease  to  advocate  the  adoption  of 
other  than  moral  means  to  merge  her  territories  in  the 
Union.  An  independent  Canada  would  not  long  delay 
the  railway  across  the  continent  to  Puget  Sound,  which 
a  British  bureau  calls  impossible.  England  would  be 
relieved  from  the  fear  of  a  certain  defeat  by  America 
in  the  event  of  war — a  fear  always  harmful,  even  when 
war  seems  most  unlikely ;  relieved,  too,  from  the  cost 
of  such  panics  as  those  of  1861  and  1866. 

Did  Canada  stand  alone,  no  offense  that  she  could 
give  America  would  be  likely  to  unite  all  sections 
of  that  country  in  an  attempt  to  conquer  her;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  such  an  attempt  would  be  resisted 
to  the  death  by  an  armed  and  brave  people,  four  mil- 
lions strong.  As  it  is,  any  offense  toward  America 
committed  by  our  agents,  at  any  place  or  time,  or 
arising  out  of  the  continual  changes  of  policy  and  of 
ministry  in  Great  Britain,  united  to  the  standing 
offense  of  maintaining  the  monarchical  principle  in 
North  America,  will  bring  upon  unhappy  Canada  the 
whole  American  nation,  indignant  in  some  cause,  just, 
or  seeming  just,  and  to  be  met  by  a  people  deceived  into 
putting  their  trust  in  a  few  regiments  of  British  troops, 
sufficient  at  the  most  to  hold  Quebec,  and  to  be  backed 
by  reinforcements  which  could  never  come  in  time, 
did  public  opinion  in  Great  Britain  so  much  as  permit 
their  sailing.  In  all  history  there  is  nothing  stranger 
than  the  narrowness  of  mind  that  has  led  us  to  see  in 
Canada  a  piece  of  England,  and  in  America  a  hostile 
country.  There  are  more  sons  of  British  subjects  in 
America  than  in  Canada,  by  far;  and  the  American 
looks  upon  the  old  country  with  a  pride  that  cannot 
be  shared  by  a  man  who  looks  to  her  to  pay  his  soldiers. 

The  independence  of  Canada  would  put  an  imme- 


68  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

diate  end  to  much  of  the  American  jealousy  of  Great 
Britain — a  consideration  which  of  itself  should  out- 
weigh any  claim  to  protection  which  the  Canadians 
can  have  on  us.  The  position  which  we  have  to  set 
before  us  in  our  external  dealings  is,  that  we  are  no 
more  fellow-countrymen  of  the  Canadians  than  of  the 
Americans  of  the  North  or  West. 

The  capital  of  the  new  dominion  is  to  be  Ottawa, 
known  as  "Hole  in  the  Woods"  among  the  friends  of 
Toronto  and  Montreal,  and  once  called  Bytown.  It 
consists  of  the  huge  Parliament-house,  the  govern- 
ment printing-office,  some  houseless  wildernesses 
meant  for  streets,  and  the  hotel  where  the  members 
of  the  legislature  "  board."  Such  was  the  senatorial 
throng  at  the  moment  of  my  visit,  that  we  were  thrust 
into  a  detached  building  made  of  half-inch  planks, 
with  wide  openings  between  the  boards ;  and  as  the 
French  Canadian  members  were  excited  about  the 
resignation  of  Mr.  Gait,  indescribable  chattering  and 
bawling  filled  the  house. 

The  view  from  the  Parliament-house  is  even  more 
thoroughly  Canadian  than  that  from  the  terrace  at 
Quebec — a  view  of  a  land  of  rapids,  of  pine  forests, 
and  of  lumberers'  homes,  full  of  character,  but  some- 
what bleak  and  dreary ;  even  on  the  hottest  summer's 
day,  it  tells  of  winter  storms  past  and  to  come.  On 
the  far  left  are  the  island-filled  reaches  of  the  Upper 
Ottawa;  nearer,  the  roaring  Chaudiere  Falls,  a  mile 
across — a  mile  of  walls  of  water,  of  sudden  shoots,  of 
jets,  of  spray.  From  the  "  caldron"  itself,  into  which 
we  can  hardly  see,  rises  a  column  of  rainbow- tin  ted 
mist,  backed  by  distant  ranges  ancL.  black  woods,  now 
fast  falling  before  the  settler's  axe.  Below  you  is  the 
river,  swift,  and  covered  with  cream-like  foam ;  on  the 
right,  a  gorge — the  mouth  of  the  Rideau  Canal. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN.  69 

When  surveyed  from  the  fittest  points,  the  Chaudi- 
e"re  is  but  little  behind  Niagara ;  but  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  in  any  fall  there  is  that  which  can  be  called 
sublimity.  Natural  causes  are  too  evident;  water, 
rushing  to  find  its  level,  falls  from  a  ledge  of  rock. 
How  different  from  a  storm  upon  the  coast,  or  from  a 
September  sunset,  where  the  natural  causes  are  so  re- 
mote that  you  can  bring  yourself  almost  to  see  the  im- 
mediate hand  of  God !  It  is  excusable  in  Americans, 
who  have  no  sea-coast  worthy  of  the  name,  to  talk  of 
Niagara  as  the  perfection  of  the  sublime;  but  it  is 
strange  that  a  people  who  have  Birling  Gap  and  Ban- 
try  Bay  should  allow  themselves  to  be  led  by  such  a 
cry. 

Niagara  has  one  beauty  in  which  it  is  unapproached 
by  the  great  Chaudiere:  the  awesome  slowness  with 
which  the  deep-green  flood,  in  the  center  of  the  Horse- 
shoe Fall,  rolls  rather  than  plunges  into  the  gulf. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

UNIVERSITY    OF    MICHIGAN. 

FROM  the  gloom  of  Buffalo,  the  smoke  of  Cincinnati, 
arid  the  dirt  of  Pittsburg,  I  should  have  been  glad  to 
escape  as  soon  as  might  be,  even  had  not  the  death 
from  cholera  of  240  persons  in  a  single  day  of  my 
visit  to  the  "  Queen  City"  warned  me  to  fly  north. 
From  a  stricken  town,  with  its  gutters  full  of  chloride 
of  lime,  and  fires  burning  in  the  public  streets,  to 
green  Michigan,  was  a  grateful  change;  but  I  was 
full  of  sorrow  at  leaving  that  richest  and  most  lovely 


70  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

of  all  States — Ohio.  There  is  a  charm  in  the  park-like 
beauty  of  the  Monongahela  valley,  dotted  with  vines 
and  orchards,  that  nothing  in  Eastern  America  can 
rival.  The  absence  at  once  of  stumps  in  the  corn- 
fields, and  of  untilled  or  unfenced  land,  gives  the 
4 'Buckeye  State"  a  look  of  age  that  none  of  the  "  old 
Eastern  States"  can  show.  In  corn,  in  meadow,  in 
timber-land,  Ohio  stands  alone.  Her  indian-corn  ex- 
ceeds in  richness  that  of  any  other  State;  she  has 
ample  stores  of  iron,  and  coal  is  worked  upon  the 
surface  in  every  Alleghany  valley.  Wool,  wine,  hops, 
tobacco,  all  are  raised;  her  Catawba  has  inspired 
poems.  Every  river-side  is  clothed  with  groves  of 
oak,  of  hickory,  of  sugar-maple,  of  sycamore,  of  poplar, 
and  of  buckeye.  Yet,  as  I  said,  the  change  to  the 
Michigan  prairie  was  full  of  a  delightful  relief;  it  was 
Holland  after  the  Ehine,  London  after  Paris. 

Where  men  grow  tall  there  will  maize  grow  tall,  is 
a  good  sound  rule:  limestone  makes  both  bone  and 
straw.  The  Northwestern  States,  inhabited  by  giant 
men,  are  the  chosen  home  of  the  most  useful  and 
beautiful  of  plants,  the  maize — in  America  called 
"corn."  For  hundreds  of  miles  the  railway  track, 
protected  not  even  by  a  fence  or  hedge,  runs  through 
the  towering  plants,  which  hide  all  prospects  save  that 
of  their  own  green  pyramids.  Maize  feeds  the  people, 
it  feeds  the  cattle  and  the  hogs  that  they  export  to  feed 
the  cities  of  the  East;  from  it  is  made  yearly,  as  an 
Ohio  farmer  told  me,  "whisky  enough  to  float  the 
ark."  Rice  is  not  more  the  support  of  the  Chinese 
than  maize  of  the  English  in  America. 

In  the  great  corn-field  of  the  Northwestern  States, 
dwells  a  people  without  a  history,  without  tradition, 
busy  at  hewing  out  of  the  forest  trunks  codes  and 
social  usages  of  its  own.  The  Kansas  men  have  set 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN.  71 

themselves  to  emancipating  women;  the  "Wolver- 
ines," as  the  people  of  Michigan  are  called,  have 
turned  their  heads  to  education,  and  are  teaching  the 
teachers  upon  this  point. 

The  rapidity  with  which  intellectual  activity  is 
awakened  in  the  West  is  inexplicable  to  the  people 
of  New  England.  While  you  are  admiring  the  laws 
of  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin,  Boston  men  tell  you 
that  the  resemblance  of  the  code  of  Kansas  to  that  of 
Connecticut  is  consequent  only  on  the  fact,  that  the 
framers  of  the  former  possessed  a  copy  of  this  one 
New  England  code,  while  they  had  never  set  eyes 
upon  the  code  of  any  other  country  in  the  world. 
While  Yale  and  Harvard  are  trying  in  vain  to  keep 
pace  with  the  State  universities  of  Michigan  and 
Kansas,  you  will  meet  in  Lowell  and  New  Haven 
men  who  apply  an  old  Russian  story  to  the  Western 
colleges,  and  tell  you  that  their  professors  of  lan- 
guages, when  asked  where  they  have  studied,  reply 
that  they  guess  they  learned  to  read  and  write  in 
Springfield. 

One  of  the  difficulties  of  the  New  England  colleges 
has  been  to  reconcile  university  traditions  with  demo- 
cracy ;  but  in  the  Western  States  there  is  neither  re- 
conciliation nor  tradition,  though  universities  are 
plenty.  Probably  the  most  democratic  school  in  the 
whole  world  is  the  State  University  of  Michigan,  situ- 
ate at  Ann  Arbor,  near  Detroit.  It  is  cheap,  large, 
practical;  twelve  hundred  students,  paying  only  the 
ten  dollars  entrance  fee,  and  five  dollars  a  year  during 
residence,  and  living  where  they  can  in  the  little  town, 
attend  the  university  to  be  prepared  to  enter  with 
knowledge  and  resolution  upon  the  affairs  of  their  fu- 
ture life.  A  few  only  are  educated  by  having  their 
minds  unfolded  that  they  may  become  many-sided 


72  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

men ;  but  all  work  with  spirit,  and  with  that  earnest- 
ness which  is  seen  in  the  Scotch  universities  at  home. 
The  war  with  crime,  the  war  with  sin,  the  war  with 
death — Law,  Theology,  Medicine — these  are  the  three 
foremost  of  man's  employments  ;  to  these,  accordingly, 
the  university  affords  her  chiefest  care,  and  to  one  of 
these  the  student,  his  entrance  examination  passed, 
often  gives  his  entire  time. 

These  things  are  democratic,  but  it  is  not  in  them 
that  the  essential  democracy  of  the  university  is  to  be 
seen.  There  are  at  Michigan  no  honor-lists,  no  classes 
in  our  sense,  no  orders  of  merit,  no  competition.  A 
man  takes,  or  does  not  take  a  certain  degree.  The 
university  is  governed,  not  by  its  members,  not  by 
its  professors,  but  by  a  parliament  of  " regents"  ap- 
pointed by  the  inhabitants  of  the  State.  Such  are  the 
two  great  principles  of  the  democratic  university  of 
the  West. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  these  two  strange  depart- 
ures from  the  systems  of  older  universities  were  irreg- 
ularities, introduced  to  meet  the  temporary  embar- 
rassments incidental  to  educational  establishments  in 
young  States.  So  far  is  this  from  being  the  case  that, 
as  I  saw  at  Cambridge,  the  clearest-sighted  men  of  the 
older  colleges  of  America  are  trying  to  assimilate  their 
teaching  system  to  that  of  Michigan — at  least  in  the 
one  point  of  the  absence  of  competition.  They  assert 
that  toil  performed  under  the  excitement  of  a  fierce 
struggle  between  man  and  man  is  unhealthy  work, 
different  in  nature  and  in  results  from  the  loving  labor 
of  men  whose  hearts  are  really  in  what  they  do :  toil,  in 
short,  not  very  easily  distinguishable  from  slave  labor. 

In  the  matter  of  the  absence  of  competition,  Michi- 
gan is  probably  but  returning  to  the  system  of  the  Euro- 
pean universities  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  the  govern- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN.  73 

merit  by  other  than  the  members  of  the  university  is 
a  still  stranger  scheme.  It  is  explained  when  we  look 
to  the  sources  whence  the  funds  of  the  university  are 
drawn — namely,  from  the  pockets  of  the  taxpayers  of 
the  State.  The  men  who  have  set  up  this  corporation 
in  their  midst,  and  who  tax  themselves  for  its  support, 
cannot  be  called  on,  they  say,  to  renounce  its  govern- 
ment to  their  nominees,  professors  from  New  Eng- 
land, unconnected  with  the  State,  men  of  one  idea, 
often  quarrelsome,  sometimes  "irreligious."  There  is 
much  truth  in  these  statements  of  the  case,  but  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  men  chosen  to  serve  as  "  regents"  are 
of  a  higher  intellectual  stamp  than  those  appointed  to 
educational  offices  in  the  Canadian  backwoods.  A 
report  was  put  into  my  hands  at  Ottawa,  in  which  a 
superintendent  of  instruction  writes  to  the  Minister 
of  Education,  that  he  had  advised  the  ratepayers  of 
Victoria  County  not  in  future  to  elect  as  school  trustees 
men  who  cannot  read  or  write.  As  Michigan  grows 
older,  she  will,  perhaps,  seek  to  conform  to  the  prac- 
tice of  other  universities  in  this  matter  of  her  govern- 
ment, but  in  the  point  of  absence  of  competition  she 
is  likely  to  continue  firm. 

Even  here  some  difficulty  is  found  in  getting  com- 
petent school  directors;  one  of  them  reported  31 J 
children  attending  school.  Of  another  district  its  su- 
perintendent reports :  "  Conduct  of  scholars  about  the 
same  as  that  of  <  Young  America'  in  general."  Some 
of  the  superintendents  aim-  at  jocosity,  and  show  no 
want  of  talent  in  themselves,  while  their  efforts  are  to 
demonstrate  its  deficiency  among  the  boys.  The  su- 
perintendent of  Grattan  says,  in  answer  to  some  num- 
bered questions:  "  Condition  good,  improvement  fair ; 
for  J  of  J  of  the  year  in  school,  and  fifteen-sixteenths 
of  the  time  at  play.  Male  teachers  most  successful 

7 


74  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

with  the  birch ;  female  with  Cupid's  darts.  School- 
houses  in  fair  whittling  order.  Apparatus:  Shovel, 
none  ;  tongs,  ditto ;  poker,  one.  Conduct  of  scholars 
like  that  of  parents — good,  bad,  and  indifferent.  No 
minister  in  town — sorry;  no  lawyer — good!"  The 
superintendents  of  Manlius  Township  report  that  Dis- 
tricts 1  and  2  have  buildings  "fit  (in  winter)  only  for 
the  polar  bear,  walrus,  reindeer,  Russian  sable,  or  Si- 
berian bat ;"  and  they  go  on  to  say:  "  Our  children  read 
everything,  from  Mr.  Noodle's  Essays  on  Matrimony  to 
Artemus  Ward's  Lecture  on  First  Principles  of  Amer- 
ican Government."  Another  report  from  a  very  new 
county  runs :  "  Sunday-schools  afford  a  little  reading- 
matter  to  the  children.  Character  of  matter  most 
read — battle,  murder,  and  sudden  death."  A  third 
states  that  the  teachers  are  meanly  paid,  and  goes  on : 
"If  the  teaching  is  no  better  than  the  pay,  it  must  be 
like  the  soup  that  the  rebels  gave  the  prisoners."  A 
superintendent,  reporting  that  the  success  of  the  teach- 
ers is  greater  than  their  qualifications  warrant,  says : 
"The  reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  Yankeeish  adapta- 
bility of  even  Wolverines." 

After  all,  it  is  hard  even  to  pass  jokes  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Northwestern  people.  A  population 
who  would  maintain  schools  and  universities  under 
difficulties  apparently  overwhelming  was  the  source 
from  which  to  draw  Union  volunteers  such  as  those 
who,  after  the  war,  returned  to  their  Northern  homes, 
I  have  been  told,  shocked*  and  astonished  at  the  igno- 
rance and  debasement  of  the  Southern  whites. 

The  system  of  elective  studies  pursued  at  Michigan 
is  one  to  which  we  are  year  by  year  tending  in  the 
English  universities.  As  sciences  multiply  and  deepen, 
it  becomes  more  and  more  impossible  that  a  "general 
course"  scheme  can  produce  men  fit  to  take  their 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN.  75 

places  in  the  world.  Cambridge  has  attempted  to  set 
up  both  systems,  and,  giving  her  students  the  choice, 
bids  them  pursue  one  branch  of  study  with  a  view  to 
honors,  or  take  a  less  valued  degree  requiring  some 
slight  proficiency  in  many  things.  Michigan  denies 
that  the  stimulus  of  honor  examinations  should  be  con- 
nected with  the  elective  system.  With  her,  men  first 
graduate  in  science,  or  in  an  arts  degree,  which  bears 
a  close  resemblance  to  the  English  "  poll,"  and  then 
pursue  their  elected  study  in  a  course  which  leads  to 
no  university  distinction,  which  is  free  from  the  strug- 
gle for  place  and  honors.  These  objections  to  "  hon- 
ors" rest  upon  a  more  solid  foundation  than  a  mere 
democratic  hatred  of  inequality  of  man  and  man.  Re- 
pute as  a  writer,  as  a  practitioner,  is  valued  by  the  Ann 
Arbor  man,  and  the  Wolverines  do  not  follow  the 
Ephesians,  and  tell  men  who  excel  among  them  to  go 
and  excel  elsewhere.  The  Michigan  professors  say, 
and  Dr.  Hedges  bears  them  out,  that  a  far  higher  av- 
erage of  real  knowledge  is  obtained  under  this  system 
of  independent  work  than  is  dreamt  of  in  colleges 
where  competition  rules.  "A  higher  average"  is  all 
they  say,  and  they  acknowledge  frankly  that  there  is 
here  and  there  a  student  to  be  found  to  whom  compe- 
tition would  do  good.  As  a  rule,  th&y  tell  us  this  is 
not  the  case.  Unlimited  battle  between  man  and  man 
for  place  is  sufficiently  the  bane  of  the  world  not  to 
be  made  the  curse  of  schools :  competition  breeds  every 
evil  which  it  is  the  aim  of  education,  the  duty  of  a  uni- 
versity to  suppress:  pale  faces  caused  by  excessive 
toil,  feverish  excitement  that  prevents  true  work,  a 
hatred  of  the  subject  on  which  the  toil  is  spent,  jeal- 
ousy of  best  friends,  systematic  depreciation  of  men's 
talents,  rejection  of  all  reading  that  will  not  "pay," 
extreme  and  unhealthy  cultivation  of  the  memory, 


76  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

general  degradation  of  labor — all  these  evils,  and 
many  more,  are  charged  upon  the  competition  system. 
Everything  that  our  professors  have  to  say  of  "  cram  " 
these  American  thinkers  apply  to  competition.  Strange 
doctrines  these  for  young  America ! 

Of  the  practical  turn  which  we  should  naturally  ex- 
pect to  discover  in  the  university  of  a  bran-new  State 
I  found  evidence  in  the  regulation  which  prescribes 
that  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  shall  not  be  conferred 
as  a  matter  of  course  upon  graduates  of  three  years' 
standing,  but  only  upon  such  as  have  pursued  profes- 
sional or  general  scientific  studies  during  that  period. 
Even  in  these  cases  an  examination  before  some  one 
of  the  faculties  is  required  for  the  Master's  degree.  I 
was  told  that  for  the  medical  degree  "  four  years  of 
reputable  practice"  is  received,  instead  of  certain 
courses. 

In  her  special  and  selected  studies,  Michigan  is  as 
merely  practical  as  Swift's  University  of  Brobdingnag; 
but,  standing  far  above  the  ordinary  arts  or  science 
courses,  there  is  a  " University  course"  designed  for 
those  who  have  already  taken  the  Bachelor's  degree. 
It  is  harder  to  say  what  this  course  includes  than 
what  it  does  not.  The  twenty  heads  range  over  phi- 
lology, philosophy,  art,  and  science ;  there  is  a  branch 
of  " criticism,"  one  of  "  arts  of  design,"  one  of  "fine 
arts."  Astronomy,  ethics,  and  Oriental  languages  are 
all  embraced  in  a  scheme  brought  into  working  order 
within  ten  years  of  the  time  when  Michigan  was  a 
wilderness,  and  the  college-yard  an  Indian  hunting- 
ground. 

Michigan  entered  upon  education  work  very  early 
in  her  history  as  a  State.  In  1850,  her  legislature 
commissioned  the  Hon.  Ira  May  hew  to  prepare  a 
work  on  education  for  circulation  throughout  America. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN.  77 

Her  progress  has-  been  as  rapid  as  her  start  was  good; 
her  natural  history  collection  is  already  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  America;  her  medical  school  is 
almost  uuequaled,  and  students  flow  to  her  even 
from  New  England  and  from  California,  while  from 
New  York  she  draws  a  hundred  men  a  year.  In  only 
one  point  is  Ann  Arbor  anywhere  but  in  the  van: 
she  has  hitherto  followed  the  New  England  colleges 
in  excluding  women.  The  State  University  of  Kansas 
has  not  shown  the  same  exclusiveness  that  has  char- 
acterized the  conduct  of  the  rulers  of  Michigan:  women 
are  admitted  not  only  to  the  classes,  but  to  the  profes- 
sorships at  Lawrence. 

This  Northwestern  institution  at  Ann  Arbor  was 
not  behind  even  Harvard  in  the  war:  it  supplied  the 
Union  army  with  1000  men.  The  17th  Regiment  of 
Michigan  Volunteers,  mainly  composed  of  teachers  and 
Ann  Arbor  students,  has  no  cause  to  fear  the  rivalry 
of  any  other  "record;"  and  such  was  the  effect  of  the 
war,  that  in  1860  there  were  in  Michigan  2600  male 
to  5350  female  teachers,  whereas  now  there  are  but 
1300  men  to  7500  women. 

So  proud  are  Michigan  men  of  their  roll  of  honor, 
that  they  publish  it  at  full  length  in  the  calendar  of 
the  university.  Every  "class"  from  the  foundation 
of  the  schools  shows  some  graduates  distinguished  in 
their  country's  service  during  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion.  The  Hon.  Oramel  Hosford,  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  in  Michigan,  reports  that,  owing 
to  the  presence  of  crowds  of  returned  soldiers,  the 
schools  of  the  State  are  filled  almost  to  the  limit  of. 
their  capacity,  while  some  are  compelled  to  close  their 
doors  against  the  thronging  crowds.  Captains,  colonels, 
generals,  are  among  the  students  now  humbly  learning 
in  the  Ann  Arbor  University  Schools. 

f* 


78  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

The  State  of  Michigan  is  peculiar  in  the  form  that 
she  has  given  to  her  higher  teaching;  but  in  no  way 
peculiar  in  the  attention  she  bestows  on  education. 
Teaching,  high  and  low,  is  a  passion  in  the  West, 
and  each  of  these  young  States  has  established  a 
university  of  the  highest  order,  and  placed  in.  every 
township  not  only  schools,  but  public  libraries,  sup- 
ported from  the  rates,  and  managed  by  the  people. 

Not  only  have  the  appropriations  for  educational 
purposes  by  each  State  been  large,  but  those  of  the 
Federal  government  have  been  upon  the  most  splen- 
did scale.  What  has  been  done  in  the  Eastern  and 
the  Central  States  no  man  can  tell,  but  even  west  of 
the  Mississippi  twenty-two  million  acres  have  already 
been  granted  for  such  purposes,  while  fifty-six  million 
more  are  set  aside  for  similar  gifts. 

The  Americans  are  not  forgetful  of  their  Puritan 
traditions. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

THE   PACIFIC   RAILROAD. 

WHEN  the  companions  of  the  explorer  Cartier  found 
that  the  rapids  at  Montreal  were  not  the  end  of  all 
navigation,  as  they  had  feared,  but  that  above  them 
there  commenced  a  second  and  boundless  reach  of 
deep,  still  waters,  they  fancied  they  had  found  the  long- 
looked-for  route  to  China,  and  cried,  "La  Chine!" 
So  the  story  goes,  and  the  name  has  stuck  to  the  place. 

Up  to  1861,  the  Canadians  remained  in  the  belief 
that  they  were  at  least  the  potential  possessors  of  the 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILEOAD.  79 

only  possible  road  for  the  China  trade  of  the  future, 
for  in  that  year  a  Canadian  government  paper  declared 
that  the  Rocky  Mountains,  south  of  British  territory, 
were  impassable  for  railroads.  Maps  showed  that  from 
St.  Louis  to  San  Francisco  the  distance  was  twice  that 
from  the  head  of  navigation  on  Lake  Superior  to  the 
British  Pacific  ports. 

America  has  gone  through  a  five  years'  agony  since 
that  time;  but  now,  in  the  first  days  of  peace,  we  find 
that  the  American  Pacific  Railroad,  growing  at  the 
average  rate  of  two  miles  a  day  at  one  end,  and  one 
mile  a  day  at  the  other,  will  stretch  from  sea  to  sea  in 
1869  or  1870,  while  the  British  Hue  remains  a  dream. 

Not  only  have  the  Rocky  Mountains  turned  out  to 
be  passable,  but  the  engineers  have  found  themselves 
compelled  to  decide  on  the  conflicting  claims  of  passes 
without  number.  Wall- like  and  frowning  as  the  Rocky 
Mountains  are  when  seen  from  the  plains,  the  rolling 
gaps  are  many,  and  they  are  easier  crossed  by  railway 
lines  than  the  less  lofty  chains  of  Europe.  From  the 
heat  of  the  country,  the  snow-line  lies  high ;  the  chosen 
pass  is  in  the  latitude  of  Constantinople  or  Oporto. 
The  dryness  of  the  air  of  the  center  of  a  vast  continent 
prevents  the  fall  of  heavy  snows  or  rains  in  winter. 
At  eight  or  nine  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  in  the 
Black  Hills,  or  Eastern  Piedmont,  the  drivers  on  the 
Pacific  line  will  have  slighter  snow-drifts  to  encounter 
than  their  brothers  on  the  Grand  Trunk  or  the  Cam- 
den  and  Amboy  at  the  sea-level.  On  the  other  hand, 
fuel  and  water  are  scarce,  and  there  is  an  endless  suc- 
cession of  smaller  snowy  chains  which  have  to  be 
crossed,  upon  the  Grand  Plateau  or  basin  of  the  Great 
Salt  Lake.  Whatever  the  difficulties,  in  1870  the  line 
will  be  an  accomplished  fact. 

In  the  act  creating  the  Pacific  Railroad  Company, 


80  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

passed  in  1862,  the  company  were  bound  to  complete 
their  line  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  miles  a  year.  They 
are  completing  it  at  more  than  three  times  that  rate. 

When  the  act  is  examined,  it  ceases  to  be  strange 
that  the  road  should  be  pushed  with  extraordinary  en- 
ergy and  speed,  so  numerous  are  the  baits  offered  to 
the  companies  to  hasten  its  completion.  Money  is  to 
be  advanced  them ;  land  is  to  be  given  them  for  every 
mile  they  finish — on  a  generous  scale  while  the  line  is 
on  the  plains,  on  three  times  the  scale  when  it  reaches 
the  most  rugged  tracts.  These  grants  alone  are  esti- 
mated at  twenty  millions  of  acres.  Besides  the  alter- 
nate sections,  a  width  of  four  hundred  feet,  with  addi- 
tional room  for  works  and  stations,  is  granted  for  the 
line.  The  California  Company  is  tempted  by  similar 
offers  to  a  race  with  the  Union  Pacific,  and  each  com- 
pany is  struggling  to  lay  the  most  miles  and  get  the 
most  land  upon  the  great  basin.  It  is  the  interest  of 
the  Eastern  Company  that  the  junction  should  be  as 
far  as  possible  to  the  west;  of  the  Western,  that  it 
should  be  as  far  as  possible  to  the  east.  The  result  is 
an  average  laying  of  three,  and  an  occasional  construc- 
tion of  four,  miles  a  day.  If  we  look  to  the  progress 
at  both  ends,  we  find  as  much  sometimes  laid  in  a  day 
as  a  bullock  train  could  travel.  So  fast  do  the  head- 
quarters "  cities"  keep  moving  forward,  that  at  the 
Californian  end  the  superintendent  wished  me  to  be- 
lieve that  whenever  his  chickens  heard  a  wagon  pass, 
they  threw  themselves  upon  their  backs,  and  held  up 
their  legs,  that  they  might  be  tied  and  thrown  into 
the  cart  for  a  fresh  move.  "They  are  true  birds  of 
passage,"  he  said. 

When  the  iron  trains  are  at  the  front,  the  laying 
will  for  a  short  time  proceed  at  the  rate  of  nine  yards 
in  every  fifteen  seconds;  but  three  or  four  hundred 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  81 

tons  of  rails  have  to  be  brought  up  every  day  upon 
the  single  track,  and  it  is  in  this  that  the  time  is  lost. 

The  advance  carriages  of  the  construction  train  are 
well  supplied  with  rifles  hung  from  the  roofs;  but 
even  when  the  Indians  forget  their  amaze,  and  attack 
the  "city  upon  wheels,"  or  tear  up  the  track,  they 
are  incapable  of  destroying  the  line  so  fast  as  the 
machinery  can  lay  it  down.  "Soon,"  as  a  Denver 
paper  said,  during  my  stay  in  the  Mountain  City, 
"the  iron  horse  will  sniff  the  Alpine  breeze  upon 
the  summit  of  the  Black  Hills  9000  feet  above  the 
sea;"  and  upon  the  plateau,  where  deer  are  scarce 
and  buffalo  unknown,  the  Indians  have  all  but  disap- 
peared. The  worst  Indian  country  is  already  crossed, 
and  the  red  men  have  sullenly  followed  the  buffalo 
to  the  south,  and  occupy  the  country  between  Kansas 
State  and  Denver,  contenting  themselves  with  pre- 
venting the  construction  of  the  Santa  F£  and  Denver 
routes  to  California.  Both  for  the  end  in  view,  and 
the  energy  with  which  it  is  pursued,  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road will  stand  first  among  the  achievements  of  our 
times. 

If  the  end  to  be  kept  in  view  in  the  construction 
of  the  first  Pacific  Railroad  line  were  merely  the  traffic 
from  China  and  Japan  to  Europe,  or  the  shortest  route 
from  San  Francisco  to  Hampton  Roads,  the  Kansas 
route  through  St.  Louis,  Denver,  and  the  Berthoud 
Pass  would  be,  perhaps,  the  best  and  shortest  of  those 
within  the  United  States ;  but  the  Saskatchewan  line 
through  British  territory,  with  Halifax  and  Puget 
Sound  for  ports,  would  be  still  more  advantageous. 
As  it  is,  the  true  question  seems  to  be,  not  the  trade 
between  the  Pacific  and  Great  Britain,  but  between 
Asia  and  America,  for  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  must 
be  the  manufacturing  countries  of  the  next  fifty  years. 


82  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Whatever  our  theory,  the  fact  is  plain  enough:  in 
1870  we  shall  reach  San  Francisco  from  London  in 
less  time  than  by  the  severest  traveling  I  can  reach 
it  from  Denver  in  1866. 

Wherever,  in  the  States,  North  and  South  have  met 
in  conflict,  North  has  won.  New  York  has  beaten 
Norfolk;  Chicago,  in  spite  of  its  inferior  situation,  has 
beaten  the  older  St.  Louis.  In  the  same  way,  Omaha, 
or  cities  still  farther  north,  will  carry  off  the  trade  from 
Leavenworth,  Lawrence,  and  Kansas  City.  Ultimately 
Puget  Sound  may  beat  San  Francisco  in  the  race  for 
the  Pacific  trade,  and  the  Southern  cities  become  still 
less  able  to  keep  their  place  than  they  have  been 
hitherto.  Time  after  time,  Chicago  has  thrown  out 
intercepting  lines,  and  diverted  from  St.  Louis  trade 
which  seemed  of  necessity  to  belong  to  her;  and  the 
success  of  the  Union  Pacific  line,  and  failure  of  the 
Kansas  road,  is  a  fresh  proof  of  the  superior  energy  of 
the  Northern  to  the  Southern  city.  This  time  a  fresh 
element  enters  into  the  calculation,  and  declares  for 
Chicago.  The  great  circle  route,  the  true  straight  line, 
is  in  these  great  distances  shorter  by  fifty  or  a  hundred 
miles  than  the  straight  lines  of  the  maps  and  charts, 
and  the  Platte  route  becomes  not  only  the  natural,  but 
the  shortest  route  from  sea  to  sea. 

Chicago  has  a  great  advantage  over  St.  Louis  in  her 
comparative  freedom  from  the  cholera,  which  yearly 
attacks  the  Missourian  city.  During  my  stay  in  St. 
Louis,  the  deaths  from  cholera  alone  were  known  to 
have  reached  200  a  day,  in  a  population  diminished  by 
flight  to  180,000.  A  quarantine  was  established  on 
the  river ;  the  sale  of  fruit  and  vegetables  prohibited ; 
prisoners  released  on  condition  that  they  should  work 
at  burying  the  dead;  and  funeral  corteges  were  for- 
bidden. Chicago  herself,  unreached  by  the  plague, 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  83 

was  scattering  handbills  on  every  "Western  railroad 
line,  warning  immigrants  against  St.  Louis. 

The  Missourians  have  relied  overmuch  upon  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  have  forgotten  that  railroads 
are  superseding  steamboats  every  day.  Chicago,  on 
the  other  hand,  wThich  ten  years  ago  was  the  twentieth 
city  in  America,  is  probably  by  this  time  the  third. 
As  a  center  of  thought,  political  and  religious,  she 
stands  second  only  to  Boston,  and  her  Wabash  and 
Michigan  Avenues  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of 
streets. 

One  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  future  wealth  of 
America  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  all  her  "in- 
land" towns  are  ports.  The  State  of  Michigan  lies 
between  500  and  900  miles  from  the  ocean,  but  the 
single  State  has  upon  the  great  lakes  a  coast  of  1500 
miles.  From  Fort  Benton  to  the  sea  by  water  is 
nearly  4000  miles,  but  the  post  is  a  much-used  steam- 
boat port,  though  more  distant,  even  in  the  air-line, 
from  the  nearest  sea  upon  the  same  side  the  dividing 
range,  than  is  the  White  Sea  from  the  Persian  Gulf. 
Put  it  in  which  way  you  would,  Europe  could  not  hold 
this  river. 

A  great  American  city  is  almost  invariably  placed 
at  a  point  where  an  important  railroad  finds  an  out- 
port  on  a  lake  or  river.  This  is  no  adaptation  to  rail- 
ways of  the  Limerick  saying  about  rivers — namely, 
that  Providence  has  everywhere  so  placed  them  as 
to  pass  through  the  great  towns ;  for  in  America  rail- 
ways precede  population,  and  when  mapped  out  and 
laid,  they  are  but  tramways  in  the  desert.  There  is 
no  great  wonder  in  this,  when  we  remember  that 
158,000,000  acres  of  land  have  been  up  to  this  time 
granted  to  railroads  in  America. 

One  tendency  of  a  costly  railroad  system  is  that  few 


84  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

lines  will  be  made,  and  trade  being  thus  driven  into 
certain  unchanging  routes,  a  small  number  of  cities 
will  flourish  greatly,  and,  by  acting  as  housing  stations 
or  as  ports,  will  rise  to  enormous  wealth  and  popula- 
tion. Where  a  system  of  cheap  railways  is  adopted, 
there  will  be  year  by  year  a  tendency  to  multiply  lines 
of  traffic,  and  consequently  to  multiply  also  ports  and 
seats  of  trade — a  tendency,  however,  which  may  be 
more  than  neutralized  by  any  special  circumstances 
which  may  cause  the  lines  of  transit  to  converge  rather 
than  run  parallel  to  one  another.  Of  the  system  of 
costly  grand  trunk  lines  we  have  an  instance  in  India, 
where  we  see  the  creation  of  Umritsur  and  the  pros- 
perity of  Calcutta  alike  due  to  our  single  great  Bengal 
line ;  of  the  converging  system  we  have  excellent  in- 
stances in  Chicago  and  Bombay;  while  we  see  the 
plan  of  paralled  lines  in  action  here  in  Kansas,  and 
causing  the  comparative  equality  of  progress  mani- 
fested in  Leavenworth,  in  Atchison,  in  Omaha.  The 
coasts  of  India  swarmed  with  ports  till  our  trunk  lines 
ruined  Goa  and  Surat  to  advance  Bombay,  and  a  hun- 
dred village  ports  to  push  our  factory  at  Calcutta, 
founded  by  Charnock  as  late  as  1690,  but  now  grown 
to  be  the  third  or  fourth  city  of  the  empire. 

Of  the  dozen  chaotic  cities  which  are  struggling  for 
the  honor  of  becoming  the  future  capital  of  the  West, 
Leavenworth,  with  20,000  people,  three  daily  papers, 
an  opera  house,  and  200  drinking  saloons,  was,  at  the 
time  of  my  visit  in  1866,  somewhat  ahead  of  Omaha, 
with  its  12,000,  two  papers,  and  a  single  "one-horse" 
theater,  though  the  northern  city  tied  Leavenworth  in 
the  point  of  "  saloons." 

Omaha,  Leavenworth,  Kansas  City,  Wyandotte, 
Atchison,  Topeka,  Lecompton,  and  Lawrence,  each 
praises  itself  and  runs  down  its  neighbor.  Leaven- 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  85 

worth  claims  to  be  so  healthy  that  when  it  lately  be- 
came necessary  to  "inaugurate"  the  new  grave-yard, 
"they  had  to  shoot  a  man  on  purpose" — a  change  since 
the  days  when  the  Southern  Border  Ruffians  were  in 
the  habit  of  parading  its  streets,  bearing  the  scalps  of 
abolitionists  stuck  on  poles.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Ne- 
braska man,  when  asked  whether  the  Kansas  people 
were  fairly  honest,  said:  "Don't  know  about  honest; 
but  they  do  say  as  how  the  folk  around  take  in  their 
stone  fences  every  night."  Lawrence,  the  State  cap- 
ital, which  is  on  the  dried-up  Kansas  River,  sneeringly 
says  of  all  the  new  towns  on  the  Missouri  that  the  boats 
that  ply  between  them  are  so  dangerous  that  the  fare 
is  collected  in  installments  every  five  minutes  through- 
out the  trip.  Next  after  the  jealousy  between  two 
Australian  colonies,  there  is  nothing  equal  to  the  ha- 
treds between  cities  competing  for  the  same  trade. 
Omaha  has  now  the  best  chance  of  becoming  the  cap- 
ital of  the  far  West,  but  Leavenworth  will  no  doubt 
continue  to  be  the  chief  town  of  Kansas. 

The  progress  of  the  smaller  cities  is  amazing.  Pis- 
tol-shots by  day  and  night  are  frequent,  but  trade  and 
development  are  little  interfered  with  by  such  incidents 
as  these ;  and  as  the  village  cities  are  peopled  up,  the 
pioneers,  shunning  their  fellows,  keep  pushing  west- 
ward, seeking  new  "locations."  "  You're  the  second 
man  I've  seen  this  fall !  Darn  me,  if  'taint  'bout  time 
to  varmose  out  westerly — y,"  is  the  standing  joke  of 
the  "  frontier-bars"  against  each  other. 

^iK******* 

At  St.  Louis  I  had  met  my  friend  Mr.  Hepworth 
Dixon,  just  out  from  England,  and  with  him  I  visited 
the  Kansas  towns,  and  then  pushed  through  Waumego 
to  Manhattan,  the  terminus  (for  the  day)  of  the  Kansas 
Pacific  line.  Here  we  were  thrust  into  what  space 

8 


86  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

remained  between  forty  leathern  mail-bags  and  the 
canvas  roof  of  the  mule-drawn  ambulance,  which  was 
to  be  at  once  our  prison  for  six  nights,  and  our  fort 
upon  wheels  against  the  Indians. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OMPHALISM. 

DASHING  through  a  grove  of  cottonwood-trees  draped 
in  bignonia  and  ivy,  we  came  out  suddenly  upon  a 
charming  scene :  a  range  of  huts  and  forts  crowning 
a  long,  low  hill  seamed  with  many  a  timber-clothed 
ravine,  while  the  clear  stream  of  the  Republican  fork 
wreathed  itself  about  the  woods  and  bluffs.  The 
block-house,  over  which  floated  the  Stars  and  Stripes, 
was  Fort  Riley,  the  Hyde  Park  Corner  from  which 
continents  are  to  measure  all  their  miles ;  the  "  capital 
of  the  universe,"  or  "  center  of  the  world."  Not  that 
it  has  always  been  so.  Geographers  will  be  glad  to 
learn  that  not  only  does  the  earth  gyrate,  but  that  the 
center  of  its  crust  also  moves:  within  the  last  ten 
years  it  has  removed  westward  into  Kansas  from  Mis- 
souri— from  Independence  to  Fort  Riley.  The  contest 
for  centership  is  no  new  thing.  Herodotus  held  that 
Greece  was  the  very  middle  of  the  world,  and  that  the 
unhappy  Orientals  were  frozen,  and  the  yet  more  un- 
fortunate Atlantic  Indians  baked  every  afternoon  of 
their  poor  lives  in  order  that  the  sun  might  shine  on 
Greece  at  noon ;  London  plumes  herself  on  being  the 
"center  of  the  terrestrial  globe;"  Boston  is  the  "hub 


OMPHALISM.  87 

of  the  hull  universe,"  though  the  latter  claim  is  less 
physical  than  moral,  I  believe.  In  Fort  Biley  the 
Western  men  seem  to  have  found  the  physical  center 
of  the  United  States,  but  they  claim  for  the  Great 
Plains  as  well  the  intellectual  as  the  political  leader- 
ship of  the  whole  continent.  These  hitherto  untrod- 
den tracts,  they  tell  you,  form  the  heart  of  the  empire, 
from  which  the  life-blood  must  be  driven  to  the  ex- 
tremities. Geographical  and  political  centers  must 
ultimately  coincide. 

Connected  with  this  belief  is  another  Western  the- 
ory— that  the  powers  of  the  future  must  be  "  conti- 
nental." Germany,  or  else  Russia,  is  to  absorb  all 
Asia  and  Europe,  except  Britain.  North  America  is 
already  cared  for,  as  the  gradual  extinction  of  the 
Mexican  and  absorption  of  the  Canadians  they  con- 
sider certain.  As  for  South  America,  the  Californians 
are  planning  an  occupation  of  Western  Brazil,  on  the 
ground  that  the  continental  power  of  South  America 
must  start  from  the  head-waters  of  the  great  rivers, 
and  spread  seaward  down  the  streams.  Even  in  the 
Brazilian  climate  they  believe  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  is 
destined  to  become  the  dominant  race. 

The  success  of  this  omphalism,  this  government 
from  the  center,  will  b'e  brought  about,  in  the  West- 
ern, belief,  by  the  necessity  under  which  the  nations  on 
the  head-waters  of  all  streams  will  find  themselves  of 
having  the  outlets  in  their  hands.  Even  if  it  be  true 
that  railways  are  beating  rivers,  still  the  railways  must 
also  lead  seaward  to  the  ports,  and  the  need  for  their 
control  is  stilt-felt  by  the  producers  in  the  center  coun- 
tries of  the  continent.  The  Upper  States  must  every- 
where command  the  Lower,  and  salt-water  despotism 
find  its  end. 

The  Americans  of  the  Valley  States,  who  fought 


88  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

all  the  more  heartily  in  the  Federal  cause  from  the 
fact  that  they  were  battling  for  the  freedom  of  the 
Mississippi  against  the  men  who  held  its  rnouth,  look 
forward  to  the  time  when  they  will  have  to  assert, 
peaceably  but  with  firmness,  their  right  to  the  free- 
dom of  their  railways  through  the  Northern  Atlantic 
States.  Whatever  their  respect  for  New  England,  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  they  are  forever  to  permit 
Illinois  and  Ohio  to  be  neutralized  in  the  Senate  by 
Rhode  Island  and  Vermont.  If  it  goes  hard  with  New 
England,  it  will  go  still  harder  with  New  York ;  and 
the  Western  men  look  forward  to  the  day  when  Wash- 
ington will  be  removed,  Congress  and  all,  to  Columbus 
or  Fort  Riley. 

The  singular  widen  ess  of  Western  thought,  always 
verging  on  extravagance,  is  traceable  to  the  width  of 
Western  land.  The  immensity  of  the  continent  pro- 
duces a  kind  of  intoxication;  there  is  moral  dram- 
drinking  in  the  contemplation  of  the  map.  No  Fourth 
of  July  oration  can  come  up  to  the  plain  facts  con- 
tained in  the  Land  Commissioners'  report.  The  pub- 
lic domain  of  the  United  States  still  consists  of  one 
thousand  five  hundred  millions  of  acres;  there  are 
two  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  coal  lands  in 
the  country,  ten  times  as  much"  as  in  all  the  remaining 
world.  In  the  Western  territories  not  yet  States,  there 
is  land  sufficient  to  bear,  at  the  English  population 
rate,  five  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  human  beings. 

It  is  strange  to  see  how  the  Western  country  dwarfs 
the  Eastern  States.  Buffalo  is  called  a  "  Western 
City;"  yet  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  is  only  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  Buffalo  is  but  seven  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  west  of  the  most  eastern  point  in  all 
the  United  States.  On  the  other  hand,  from  Buffalo 
we  can  go  two  thousand  five  hundred  miles  westward 


OMPHALISM.  89 

without  quitting  the  United  States.  "The  West"  is 
eight  times  as  wide  as  the  Atlantic  States,  and  will 
soon  be  eight  times  as  strong. 

The  conformation  of  North  America  is  widely  dif- 
ferent to  that  of  any  other  continent  on  the  globe.  In 
Europe,  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps  occupy  the  center 
point,  and  shed  the  waters  toward  each  of  the  sur- 
rounding seas :  confluence  is  almost  unknown.  So  it 
is  in  Asia:  there  the  Indus  flowing  into  the  Arabian 
Gulf,  the  Oxus  into  the  Sea  of  Aral,  the  Ganges  into 
the  Bay  of  Bengal,  the  Yangtse  Kiang  into  the  Pacific, 
and  the  Yenesei  into  the  Arctic  Ocean,  all  take  their 
rise  in  the  central  table-land.  In  South  America,  the 
mountains  form  a  wall  upon  the  west,  whence  the 
rivers  flow  eastward  in  parallel  lines.  In  North  Amer- 
ica alone  are  there  mountains  on  each  coast,  and  a 
trough  between,  into  which  the  rivers  flow  together, 
giving  in  a  single  valley  23,000  miles  of  navigable 
stream  to  be  plowed  by  steamships.  The  map  pro- 
claims the  essential  unity  of  North  America.  Political 
geography  might  be  a  more  interesting  study  than  it 
has  yet  been  made. 

In  reaching  Leavenworth,  I  had  crossed  two  of  the 
five  divisions  of  America:  the  other  three  lie  before 
me  on  my  way  to  San  Francisco.  The  eastern  slopes 
of  the  Alleghanies,  or  Atlantic  coast;  their  western 
slopes ;  the  Great  Plains ;  the  Grand  Plateau,  and  the 
Pacific  coast — these  are  the  five  divisions.  Fort  Riley, 
the  center  of  the  United  States,  is  upon  the  border  of 
the  third  division,  the  Great  Plains.  The  Atlantic 
coast  is  poor  and  stony,  but  the  slight  altitude  of  the 
Alleghany  chain  has  prevented  its  being  a  hinderance 
to  the  passage  of  population  to  the  West:  the  second 
of  the  divisions  is  now  the  richest  and  most  powerful 
of  the  five :  but  the  wave  of  immigration  is  crossing  the 

-  8* 


90  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Mississippi  and  Missouri  into  the  Great  Plains,  and 
here  at  Fort  Riley  we  are  upon  the  limit  of  civilization. 

This  spot  is  not  only  the  center  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  continent,  hut,  if  Denver  had  contrived  to 
carry  the  Pacific  Railroad  by  the  Berthoud  Pass,  would 
have  been  the  center  station  upon  what  Governor  Gil- 
pin,  of  Colorado,  calls  the  " Asiatic  and  European  rail- 
way line."  As  it  is,  Columbus  in  Nebraska  has  some- 
what a  better  chance  of  becoming  the  Washington  of 
the  future  than  has  this  block-house. 

Quitting  Fort  Riley,  we  found  ourselves  at  once  upon 
the  plains.  No  more  sycamore  and  white-oak  and 
honey-locust ;  no  more  of  the  rich  deep  green  of  the 
cotton  wood  groves ;  but  yellow  earth,  yellow  flowers, 
yellow  grass,  and  here  and  there  groves  of  giant  sun- 
flowers with  yellow  blooms,  but  no  more  trees. 

As  the  sun  set,  we  came  on  a  body  of  cavalry  march- 
ing slowly  from  the  plains  toward  the  fort.  Before 
them,  at  some  little  distance,  walked  a  sad-faced  man 
on  foot,  in  sober  riding-dress,  with  a  repeating  carbine 
slung  across  his  back.  It  was  Sherman  returning  from 
his  expedition  to  Santa  Fe\ 


LETTER  FROM  DENVER.  91 


CHAPTER   X. 

LETTER    FROM    DENVER. 

MONDAY,  3d!  September. 
MY  DEAR  , 

Here  we  are,  scalps  and  all. 

On  Tuesday  last,  at  sundown,  we  left  Fort  Riley, 
and  supped  at  Junction  City,  the  extreme  point  that 
."civilization"  has  reached  upon  the  plains.  Civiliza- 
tion means  whisky:  post-offices  don't  count. 

It  was  here  that  it  first  dawned  upon  us  that  we 
were  being  charged  500  dollars  to  guard  the  United 
States  California!!  mail,  with  the  compensation  of  the 
chance  of  being  ourselves  able  to  rob  it  with  impunity. 
It  is  at  all  events  the  case  that  we,  well  armed  as  the 
mail  officers  at  Leavenworth  insisted  on  our  being,  sat 
inside  with  forty-two  cwt.  of  mail,  in  open  bags,  and 
over  a  great  portion  of  the  route  had  only  the  driver 
with  us,  without  whose  knowledge  we  could  have  read 
all  and  stolen  most  of  the  letters,  and  with  whose 
knowledge,  but  against  whose  will,  we  could  have 
carried  off  the  whole,  leaving  him  gagged,  bound,  and 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Indians.  As  it  was,  a  mail-bag 
fell  out  one  day,  without  the  knowledge  of  either 
Dixon  or  the  driver,  who  were  outside,  and  I  had 
to  shout  pretty  freely  before  they  would  pull  up. 

On  Wednesday  we  had  our  last  "squar'  meal"  in 
the  shape  of  a  breakfast,  at  Fort  Ellsworth,  and  soon 
were  out  upon  the  almost  unknown  plains.  In  the 
morning  we  caught  up  and  passed  long  wagon  trains, 
each  wagon  drawn  by  eight  oxen,  and  guarded  by 


92  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

two  drivers  and  one  horseman,  all  armed  with  breech- 
loading  rifles  and  revolvers,  or  with  the  new  "  re- 
peate'rs,"  before  which  breech-loaders  and  revolvers 
must  alike  go  down.  All  day  we  kept  a  sharp  look- 
out for  a  party  of  seven  American  officers,  who,  in 
defiance  of  the  scout's  advice,  had  gone  out  from  the 
fort  to  hunt  buffalo  upon  the  track.  About  sundown 
we  came  into  the  little  station  of  Lost  Creek.  The 
ranchmen  told  us  that  they  had,  during  the  day,  been 
driven  in  from  their  work  by  a  party  of  Cheyennes, 
and  that  they  had  some  doubts  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the 
officers  in  going  out  to  hunt. 

Just  as  we  were  leaving  the  station,  one  of  the, 
officers'  horses  dashed  in  riderless,  and  was  caught; 
and  about  two  miles  from  the  station  we  passed 
another  on  its  back,  ripped  up  either  by  a  knife  or 
buffalo  horn.  The  saddle  was  gone,  but  there  were 
no  other  marks  of  a  fight.  We  believe  that  these 
officers  were  routed  by  buffalo,  not  Cheyennes,  but 
still  we  should  be  glad  to -hear  of  them. 

The  track  is  marked  in  many  parts  of  the  plains  by 
stakes,  such  as  those  from  which  the  Llano  Estacado 
takes  its  name ;  but  this  evening  we  turned  off  into  de- 
vious lines  by  way  of  precaution  against  ambuscades, 
coming  round  through  the  sandy  beds  of  streams  to 
the  ranches  for  the  change  of  mules.  The  ranchmen 
were  always  ready  for  us;  for,  while  we  were  still  a 
mile  away,  our  driver  would  put  his  hand  to  his 
mouth,  and  give  a  "How!  how!  how!  how — w!" 
the  Cheyenne  warhoop. 

In  the  weird  glare  that  follows  sunset  we  came  upon 
a  pile  of  rocks,  admirably  fitted  for  an  ambush.  As 
we  neared  them,  the  driver  said:  "It's  'bout  an  even 
chance  thet  we's  sculp  ther'!"  We  could  not  avoid 
them,  as  there  was  a  gully  that  could  only  be  crossed 


LETTER   FROM  DENVER.  93 

at  this  one  point.  We  dashed  down  into  the  "creek" 
and  up  again,  past  the  rocks :  there  were  no  Indians, 
but  the  driver  was  most  uneasy  till  we  reached  Big 
Creek. 

Here  they  could  give  us  nothing  whatever  to  eat, 
the  Indians  having,  on  Tuesday,  robbed  them  of  every- 
thing they  had,  and  ordered  them  to  leave  within 
fifteen  days  on  pain  of  death. 

For  250  miles  westward  from  Big  Creek  we  found 
that  every  station  had  been  warned  (and  most  plun- 
dered) by  bands  of  Cheyennes,  on  behalf  of  the  forces 
of  the  confederation  encamped  near  the  creek  itself. 
The  warning  was  in  all  cases  that  of  fire  and  death  at 
the  end  of  fifteen  days,  of  which  nine  days  have  ex- 
pired. We  found  the  horse-keepers  of  the  company 
everywhere  leaving  their  stations,  and  were,  in  conse- 
quence, very  nearly  starved,  having  been  unsuccessful 
in  our  shots  from  the  "  coach,"  except,  indeed,  at  the 
snakes. 

On  Thursday  we  passed  Big  Timber,  the  only  spot 
on  the  plains  where  there  are  trees ;  and  there  the  In- 
dians had  counted  the  trunks  and  solemnly  warned  the 
men  against  cutting  more:  "  Fifty- two  tree.  You  no 
cut  more  tree — no  more  cut.  Grass !  You  cut  grass ; 
grass  make  big  fire.  You  good  boy — you  clear  out. 
Fifteen  day,  we  come:  you  no  gone — ugh!"  The 
"ugh"  accompanied  by  an  expressive  pantomime. 

On  Thursday  evening  we  got  a  meal  of  buffalo  and 
prairie  dog,  the  former  too  strong  for  my  failing  stom- 
ach, the  latter  wholesome  nourishment,  and  fit  for 
kings — as  like  our  rabbit  in  flavor  as  he  is  in  shape. 
This  was  at  the  horse-station  of  "The  Monuments,"  a 
natural  temple  of  awesome  grandeur,  rising  from  the 
plains  like  a  giant  Stonehenge. 

On  Friday  we  "breakfasted"  at  Pond  Creek  sta- 


94  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

tion,  two  miles  from  Fort  Wallis.  Here  the  people 
had  applied  for  a  guard,  and  had  been  answered: 
"Come  into  the  fort;  we  can't  spare  a  man."  So 
much  for  the  value  of  the  present  forts ;  and  yet  even 
these — Wallis  and  Ellsworth — are  200  miles  apart. 

We  were  joined  at  breakfast  by  Bill  Comstock,  in- 
terpreter to  the  fort, — a  long-haired,  wild-eyed  half- 
breed, — who  gave  us,  in  an  hour's  talk,  the  full  history 
of  the  Indian  politics  that  have-  led  to  the  present  war. 

The  Indians,  to  the  number  of  20,000,  have  been  in 
council  with  the  Washington  Commissioners  all  this 
summer  at  FortLaramie ;  and,  after  being  clothed,  fed, 
and  armed,  lately  concluded  a  treaty,  allowing  the 
running  on  the  mail-roads.  They  now  assert  that  this 
treaty  was  intended  to  apply  to  the  Platte  road  (from 
Omaha  and  Atchison  through  Fort  Kearney),  and  to 
the  Arkansas  road,  but  not  to  the  Smoky  Hill  road, 
which  lies  between  the  others,  and  runs  through  the 
buffalo  country;  but  their  real  opposition  is  to  the  rail- 
road. The  Cheyennes  (pronounced  Shians)  have  got  the 
Camanches,  Appaches,  and  Arrapahoes  from  the  south, 
and  the  Sioux  and  Kiowas  from  the  north,  to  join  them 
in  a  confederation,  under  the  leadership  of  Spotted 
Dog,  the  chief  of  the  Little  Dog  section  of  the  Chey- 
ennes, and  son  of  White  Antelope, — killed  at  Sand 
Creek  battle  by  the  Kansas  and  Colorado  Volunteers, 
— who  has  sworn  to  avenge  his  father. 

Soon  after  leaving  Pond  Creek,  we  sighted  at  a  dis- 
tance three  mounted  "braves,"  leading  some  horses; 
and  when  we  reached  the  next  station,  we  found  that 
they  had  been  there  openly  proclaiming  that  their 
mounts  had  been  stolen  from  a  team. 

All  this  day  we  sat  with  our  revolvers  laid  upon  the 
mail-bags  in  front  of  us,  and  our  driver  also  had  his 
armory  conspicuously  displayed,  while  we  swept  the 


LETTER   FROM  DENVER.  95 

plains  with  many  an  anxious  glance.  We  were  on 
lofty  rolling  downs,  and  to  the  south  the  eye  often 
ranged  over  much  of  the  130  miles  which  lay  between 
us  and  Texas.  To  the  north  the  view  was  more 
bounded ;  still,  our  chief  danger  lay  near  the  boulders, 
which  here  and  there  covered  the  plains. 

All  Thursday  and  Friday  we  never  lost  sight  of  the 
buffalo,  in  herds  of  about  300,  and  the  " antelope" — 
the  prong-horn,  a  kind  of  gazelle — in  flocks  of  six  or 
seven.  Prairie  dogs  were  abundant,  and  wolves  and 
black-tail  deer  in  view  at  every  turn. 

The  most  singular  of  all  the  sights  of  the  plains  is 
the  constant  presence  every  few  yards  of  the  skeletons  of 
buffalo  and  of  horse,  of  mule  and  of  ox;  the  former  left 
by  the  hunters,  who  take  but  the  skin,  and  the  latter 
the  losses  of  the  mails  and  the  wagon-trains  through 
sunstroke  and  thirst.  We  killed  a  horse  on  the  second 
day  of  our  journey. 

When  we  came  upon  oxen  that  had  not  long  been 
dead,  we  found  that  the  intense  dryness  of  the  air  had 
made  mummies  of  them:  there  was  no  stench, no  putre- 
faction. 

During  the  day  I  made  some  practice  at  antelope 
with  the  driver's  Ballard ;  but  an  antelope  at  500  yards 
is  not  an  easy  target.  The  driver  shot  repeatedly  at 
buffalo  at  twenty  yards,  but  this  only  to  keep  them 
away  from  the  horses ;  the  revolver  balls  did  not  seem 
to  go  through  their  hair  and  skin,  as  they  merely 
shambled  on  in  their  usual  happy  sort  of  way,  after 
receiving  a  discharge  or  two. 

The  prairie  dogs  sat  barking  in  thousands  on  the  tops 
of  their  mounds,  but  we  were  too  grateful  to  them  for 
their  gayety  to  dream  of  pistol-shots.  They  are  no 
"dogs"  at  all,  but  rabbits  that  bark,  with  all  the  co- 
ney's tricks  and  turns,  and  the  same  odd  way  of  rub- 


96  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

bing  their  face  with  their  paws  while  they  con  you 
from  top  to  toe. 

With  wolves,  buffalo,  antelope,  deer,  skunks,  dogs, 
plover,  curlew,  dottrel,  herons,  vultures,  ravens,  snakes, 
and  locusts,  we  never  seemed  to  be  without  a  million 
companions  in  our  loneliness. 

From  Cheyenne  Wells,  where  we  changed  mules  in 
the  afternoon,  we  brought  on  the  ranchman's  wife, 
painfully  making  room  for  her  at  our  own  expense. 
Her  husband  had  been  warned  by  the  Cheyennes  that 
the  place  would  be  destroyed:  he  meant  to  stay,  but 
was  in  fear  for  her.  The  Cheyennes  had  made  her 
cook  for  them,  and  our  supper  had  gone  down  Chey- 
enne throats. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  station,  we  encountered  one 
of  the  great  "  dirt-storms"  of  the  plains.  About  5  P.M. 
I  saw  a  little  white  cloud  growing  into  a  column,  which 
in  half  an  hour  turned  black  as  night,  and  possessed 
itself  of  half  the  skies.  We  then  saw  what  seemed  to 
be  a  waterspout;  and,  though  no  rain  reached  us,  I 
think  it  was  one.  When  the  storm  burst  on  us  we 
took  it  for  rain,  and  halting,  drew  down  our  canvas 
and  held  it  against  the  hurricane.  We  soon  found 
that  our  eyes  and  mouths  were  full  of  dust ;  and  when 
I  put  out  my  hand  I  felt  that  it  was  dirt,  not  rain,  that 
was  falling.  In  a  few  minutes  it  was  pitch  dark,  and 
after  the  fall  had  continued  for  some  time,  there  began 
a  series  of  flashes  of  blinding  lightning,  in  the  very 
center  and  midst  of  which  we  seemed  to  be.  Not- 
withstanding this,  there  was  no  sound  of  thunder. 
The  "  norther"  lasted  some  three  or  four  hours,  and 
when  it  ceased,  it  left  us  total  darkness,  and  a  wind 
which  froze  our  marrow  as  we  again  started  on  our 
way.  When  Fremont  explored  this  route,  he  reported 
that  the  high  ridge  between  the  Platte  and  Arkansas 


LET  TEE   FROM  DENVER.  97 

was  notorious  among  the  Indians  for  its  tremendous 
dirt-storms.  Sheet  lightning  without  thunder  accom- 
panies dust-storms  in  all  great  continents ;  it  is  as  com- 
mon in  the  Punjab  as  in  Australia,  in  South  as  in  North 
America. 

On  Saturday  morning,  at  Lake  station,  we  got  be- 
yond the  Indians,  and  into  a  laud  of  plenty,  or  at  all 
events  a  land  of  something,  for  we  got  milk  from  the 
station  cow,  and  preserved  fruits  that  had  come  round 
through  Denver  from  Ohio  and  Kentucky.  Not  even 
on  Saturday,  however,  could  we  get  dinner,  and  as  I 
missed  the  only  antelope  that  came  within  reach,  our 
supper  was  not  much  heavier  than  our  breakfast. 

Rolling  through  the  Arrapahoe  country,  where  it  is 
proposed  to  make  a  reserve  for  the  Cheyennes,  at  eight 
o'clock  on  Saturday  morning  we  caught  sight  of  the 
glittering  snows  of  Pike's  Peak,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  away,  and  all  the  day  we  were  galloping  toward 
it,  through  a  country  swarming  with  rattlesnakes  and 
vultures.  Late  in  the  evening,  when  we  were  drawing 
near  to  the  first  of  the  Coloradan  farms,  we  came  on  a 
white  wolf  unconcernedly  taking  his  evening  prowl 
about  the  stock-yards.  He  sneaked  along  without 
taking  any  notice  of  us,  and  continued  his  thief-like 
walk  with  a  bravery  that  seemed  only  to  show  that  he 
had  never  seen  man  before ;  this  might  well  be  the 
case,  if  he  came  from  the  south,  near  the  upper  forks 
of  the  Arkansas. 

All  this,  and  the  frequency  of  buffalo,  I  was  un- 
prepared for.  I  imagined  that  though  the  plains  were 
uninhabited,  the  game  had  all  been  killed.  On  the 
contrary,  the  "  Smoky  district"  was  never  known  so 
thronged  with  buffalo  as  it  is  this  year.  The  herds 
resort  to  it  because  there  they  are  close  to  the  water 
of  the  Platte  River,  and  yet  out  of  the  reach  of  the 


98  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

traffic  of  the  Platte  road.  The  tracks  they  make  in  trav- 
eling to  and  fro  across  the  plains  are  visible  for  years 
after  they  have  ceased  to  use  them.  I  have  seen  them 
as  broad  and  as  straight  as  the  finest  of  Roman  roads. 

On  Sunday,  at  two  in  the  morning,  we  dashed  into 
Denver ;  and  as  we  reeled  and  staggered  from  our  late 
prison,  the  ambulance,  into  the  "  cockroach  corral" 
which  does  duty  for  the  bar-room  of  the  "Planters' 
House,"  we  managed  to  find  strength  and  words  to 
agree  that  we  would  fix  no  time  for  meeting  the  next 
day.  We  expected  to  sleep  for  thirty  hours;  as  it  was, 
we  met  at  breakfast  at  seven  A.M.,  less  than  five  hours 
from  the  time  we  parted.  It  is  to-day  that  we  feel  ex- 
hausted; the  exhilaration  of  the  mountain  air,  and  the 
excitement  of  frequent  visits,  carried  us  through  yes- 
terday. Dixon  is  suffering  from  strange  blains  and 
boils,  caused  by  the  unwholesome  food. 

We  have  been  called  upon  here  by  Governor  Gilpin 
and  Governor  Cummings,  the  opposition  governors. 
The  former  is  the  elected  governor  of  the  State  of  Col- 
orado which  is  to  be,  and  would  have  been  but  for  the 
fact  that  the  President  put  his  big  toe  (Western  for  veto) 
upon  the  bill ;  the  latter,  the  Washington-sent  governor 
of  the  Territory.  Gilpin  is  a  typical  pioneer  man,  and 
the  descendant  of  a  line  of  such.  He  comes  of  one  of 
the  original  Quaker  stocks  of  Maryland,  and  he  and 
his  ancestors  have  ever  been  engaged  in  founding 
States.  He  himself,  after  taking  an  active  share  in 
the  foundation  of  Kansas,  commanded  a  regiment  of 
cavalry  in  the  Mexican  war.  After  this,  he  was  at  the 
head  of  the  pioneer  army  which  explored  the  pares  of 
the  Cordilleras  and  the  Territory  of  Nevada.  He  it 
was  who  hit  upon  the  glorious  idea  of  placing  Colorado 
half  upon  each  side  of  the  Sierra  Madre.  There  never, 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  was  a  grander  idea  than 


LETTER  FROM  DENVER.  99 

this.  Any  ordinary  pioneer  or  politician  would  have 
given  Colorado  the  "natural"  frontier,  and  have  tried 
for  the  glory  of  the  foundation  of  two  States  instead  of 
one.  The  consequence  would  have  been,  lasting  dis- 
union between  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  States,  and  a 
possible  future  break-up  of  the  country.  As  it  is, 
this  commonwealth,  little  as  it  at  present  is,  links  sea 
to  sea,  and  Liverpool  to  Hong  Kong. 

The  city  swarms  with  Indians  of  the  bands  com- 
manded by  the  chiefs  Nevara  and  Collorego.  They 
are  at  war  with  the  six  confederate  tribes,  and  with 
the  Pawnees — with  all  the  plain  Indians,  in  short. 
Now,  as  the  Pawnees  are  also  at  war  with  the  six 
tribes,  there  is  a  pretty  triangular  fight.  They  came 
in  to  buy  arms,  and  fearful  scoundrels  they  look. 
Short,  flat-nosed,  long-haired,  painted  in  red  and  blue, 
and  dressed  in  a  gaudy  costume,  half  Spanish,  half 
Indian,  which  makes  their  filthiness  appear  more  filthy 
by  contrast,  and  themselves  carrying  only  their  Ballard 
and  Smith-and- Wesson,  but  forcing  the  squaws  to  carry 
all  their  other  goods,  and  papooses  in  addition,  they 
present  a  spectacle,  of  unmixed  ruffianism  which  I 
never  expect  to  see  surpassed.  Dixon  and  I,  both  of 
us,  left  London  with  "Lo!  the  poor  Indian,"  in  all  his 
dignity  and  hook-nosedness,  elevated  on  a  pedestal  of 
nobility  in  our  hearts.  Our  views  were  shaken  in  the 
East,  but  nothing  revolutionized  them  so  rapidly  as  our 
three  days'  risk  of  scalping  in  the  plains.  John  How- 
ard and  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe  themselves  would  go  in 
for  the  Western  "  disarm  at  any  price,  and  exterminate 
if  necessary"  policy  if  they  lived  long  in  Denver.  One 
of  the  braves  of  Nevara's  command  brought  in  the 
scalp  of  a  Cheyenne  chief  taken  by  him  last  month, 
and  to-day  it  hangs  outside  the  door  of  a  pawnbroker's 
shop,  for  sale,  fingered  by  every  passer-by. 


100  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Many  of  the  band  were  engaged  in  putting  on  their 
paint,  which  was  bright  vermilion,  with  a  little  indigo 
round  the  eye.  This,  with  the  sort  of  pigtail  which 
they  wear,  gives  them  the  look  of  the  gnomes  in  the 
introduction  to  a  London  pantomime.  One  of  them — 
Nevara  himself,  I  was  told — wore  a  sombrero  with 
three  scarlet  plumes,  taken  probably  from  a  Mexican, 
a  crimson  jacket,  a  dark-blue  shawl,  worn  round  the 
loins  and  over  the  arm  in  Spanish  dancer  fashion,  and 
embroidered  moccasins.  His  squaw  was  a  vermilion- 
faced  bundle  of  rags,  not  more  than  four  feet  high, 
staggering  under  buffalo  hides,  bow  and  arrows,  and 
papoose.  They  move  everywhere  on  horseback,  and 
in  the  evening  withdraw  in  military  order,  with  ad- 
vance and  rear  guard,  to  a  camp  at  some  distance  from 
the  town. 

I  inclose  some  prairie  flowers,  gathered  in  my  walks 
round  the  city.  Their  names  are  not  suited  to  their 
beauty ;  the  large  white  one  is  "  the  morning  blower," 
the  most  lovely  of  all,  save  one,  of  the  flowers  of  the 
plains.  It  grows  with  many  branches  to  a  height  of 
some  eighteen  inches,  and  bears  from  thirty  to  fifty 
blooms.  The  blossoms  are  open  up  to  a  little  after 
sunrise,  when  they  close,  seldom  to  open  even  after 
sunset.  It  is,  therefore,  peculiarly  the  early  riser's 
flower;  and  if  it  be  true  that  Nature  doesn't  make 
things  in  vain,  it  follows  that  Nature  intended  men — 
or,  at  all  events,  some  men — to  get  up  early,  which  is  a 
point  that  I  believe  was  doubtful  hitherto. 

For  the  one  prairie  flower  which  I  think  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  blower  I  cannot  find  a  name.  It  rises  to 
about  six  inches  above  ground,  and  spreads  in  a  circle 
of  a  foot  across.  Its  leaf  is  thin  and  spare ;  its  flower- 
bloom  a  white  cup,  about  two  inches  in  diameter ;  and 
its  buds  pink  and  pendulent. 


LETTER  FROM  DENVER.  101 

All  our  garden  annuals  are  to  be  found  in  masses 
acres  in  size  upon  the  plains.  Penstemon,  coreopsis, 
persecaria,  yucca,  dwarf  sumach,  marigold,  and  sun- 
flower, all  are  flowering  here  at  once,  till  the  country 
is  ablaze  with  gold  and  red.  The  coreopsis  of  our 
gardens  they  call  the  "  rosin-weed,"  and  say  that  it 
forms  excellent  food  for  sheep. 

The  view  of  the  "  Cordillera  della  Sierra  Madre," 
the  Rocky  Mountain  main  chain,  from  the  outskirts  of 
Denver  is  sublime;  that  from  the  roof  at  Milan  does 
not  approach  it.  Twelve  miles  frqm  the  city  the  mount- 
ains rise  abruptly  from  the  plains.  Piled  range  above 
range  with  step-like  regularity,  they  are  topped  by  a 
long  white  line,  sharply  relieved  against  the  indigo  of 
the  sky.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  mother 
Sierra  are  in  sight  from  our  veranda;  to  the  south, 
Pike's  Peak  and  Spanish  Peak ;  Long's  Peak  to  the 
north  ;  Mount  Lincoln  towering  above  all.  The  views 
are  limited  only  by  the  curvature  of  the  earth,  such  is 
the  marvelous  purity  of  the  Coloradan  air,  the  effect 
at  once  of  the  distance  from  the  sea  and  of  the  bed  of 
limestone  which  underlies  the  plains. 

The  site  of  Denver  is  heaven-blessed  in  climate  as 
well  as  loveliness.  The  sky  is  brilliantly  blue,  and 
cloudless  from  dawn  till  noon.  In  the  mid-day  heats, 
cloud-making  in  the  Sierra  begins,  and  by  sunset  the 
snowy  chain  is  multiplied  a  hundred  times  in  curves 
of  white  and  purple  cumuli,  while  thunder  rolls  heavily 
along  the  range.  "This  is  a  great  country,  sir,"  said 
a  Coloradan  to  me  to-day.  "  We  make  clouds  for  the 
whole  universe."  At  dark  there  is  dust  or  thunder- 
storm at  the  mountain  foot,  and  then  the  cold  and 
brilliant  night.  Summer  and  winter  it  is  the  same. 

9* 


102  GREATER   BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    XI 

BED   INDIA. 

"  THESE  Red  Indians  are  not  red,"  was  our  first  cry 
when  we  saw  the  Utes  in  the  streets  of  Denver.  They 
had  come  into  the  toavn  to  be  painted  as  English  ladies 
go  to  London  to  shop;  ^and  we  saw  them  engaged 
within  a  short  time  after  their  arrival  in  daubing  their 

O 

cheeks  with  vermilion  and  blue,  and  referring  to 
glasses  which  the  squaws  admiringly  held.  Still,  when 
we  met  them  with  peaceful  paintless  cheeks,  we  had 
seen  that  their  color  was  brown,  copper,  dirt,  anything 
you  please  except  red. 

The  Hurons,  with  whom  I  had  stayed  at  Indian  Lo- 
rette,  were  French  in  training  if  not  in  blood;  the  Pot- 
tawatomies  of  St.  Mary's  Mission,  the  Delawares  of 
Leavenworth,  are  tame  Indians:  it  is  true  that  they 
can  hardly  be  called  red;  but  still  I  had  expected  to 
have  found  these  wild  prairie  and  mountain  Indians  of 
the  color  from  which  they  take  their  name.  Save  for 
paint,  I  found  them  of  a  color  wholly  different  from 
that  which  we  call  red. 

Low  in  stature,  yellow-skinned,  small-eyed,  and  Tar- 
tar-faced, the  Indians  of  the  plains  are  a  distinct  peo- 
ple from  the  tall,  hook-nosed  warriors  of  the  Eastern 
States.  It  is  impossible  to  set  eyes  on  their  women 
without  being  reminded  of  the  dwarf  skeletons  found 
in  the  mounds  of  Missouri  and  Iowa;  but,  men  or 
women,  the  Utes  bear  no  resemblance  to  the  bright- 
eyed,  ^graceful  people  with  whom  Penn  traded  and 


EED   INDIA.  103 

Standish  fought.  They  are  not  less  inferior  in  mind 
than  in  body.  It  was  no  Shoshone',  no  Ute,  no  Chey- 
enne, who  called  the  rainbow  the  "  heaven  of  flowers," 
the  moon  "the  night  queen,"  or  the  stars  "  God's  eyes." 
The  plain  tribes  are  as  deficient,  too,  in  heroes  as  in 
poetry:  they  have  never  even  produced  a  general,  and 
White  Antelope  is  their  nearest  approach  to  a  Tecum- 
seh.  Their  mode  of  life,  the  natural  features  of  the 
country  in  which  they  dwell,  have  nothing  in  them  to 
suggest  a  reason  for  their  debased  condition.  The 
reason  must  lie  in  the  blood,  the  race. 

All  who  have  seen  both  the  Indians  and  the  Poly- 
nesians at  home  must  have  been  struck  with  innumer- 
able resemblances.  The  Maori  and  Red  Indian  wakes 
for  the  dead  are  identical ;  the  Califoruian  Indians  wear 
the  Maori  mat;  the  "medicine"  of  the  Mandan  is  but 
the  "  tapu"  of  Polynesia;  the  New  Zealand  dance-song, 
the  Maori  tribal  scepter,  were  found  alike  by  Strachey 
in  Virginia  and  Drake  in  California;  the  canoes  of  the 
West  Indies  are  the  same  as  those  of  Polynesia. 
Hundreds  of  arguments,  best  touched  from  the  farther 
side  of  the  Pacific,  concur  to  prove  the  Indians  a  Poly- 
nesian race.  The  canoes  that  brought  to  Easter  Island 
the  people  who  built  their  mounds  and  rock  temples 
there,  may  as  easily  have  been  carried  on  by  the  Chilian 
breeze  and  current  to  the  South  American  shore.  The 
wave  from  Malaya  would  have  spent  itself  upon  the 
northern  plains.  The  Utes  would  seem  to  be  Kamt- 
chatkans-,  or  men  of  the  Amoor,.who,  fighting  their 
way  round  by  Behring  Straits,  and  then  down  south, 
drove  a  wedge  between  the  Polynesians  of  Appalachia 
and  California.  No  theory  but  this  will  account  for 
the  sharp  contrast  between  the  civilization  of  ancient 
Peru  and  Mexico,  and  the  degradation  in  which  the 
Utes  have  lived  from  the  earliest  recorded  times. 


104  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Mounds,  rock  temples,  worship,  all  are  alike  unknown 
to  the  Indians  of  the  plains;  to  the  Polynesian  Indians, 
these  were  things  that  had  come  down  to  them  from 
all  time. 

Curious  as  is  the  question  of  the  descent  of  the 
American  tribes,  it  has  no  bearing  on  the  future  of 
the  country — unless,  indeed,  in  the  eyes  of  those  who 
assert  that  Delawares  and  Utes,  Hurons  and  Pawnees, 
are  all  one  race,  with  features'  modified  by  soil  and  cli- 
mate. If  this  were  so,  the  handsome,  rollicking,  frank- 
faced  Coloradan  "boys"  would  have  to  look  forward 
to  the  time  when  their  sons'  sons  should  be  as  like  the 
Utes  as  many  New  Englanders  of  to-day  are  like  the 
Indians  they  expelled — that,  as  the  New  Englanders 
are  tall,  taciturn,  and  hatchet-faced,  the  Coloradans  of 
the  next  age  should  be  flat-faced  warriors,  five  feet 
high.  Confidence  in  the  future  of  America  must  be 
founded  on  a  belief  in  the  indestructible  vitality  of 
race. 

Kamtchatkans  or  Polynesians,  Malays  or  sons  of 
the  prairies  on  which  they  dwell,  the  Red  Indians 
have  no  future.  In  twenty  years  there  will  scarcely 
be  one  of  pure  blood  alive  within  the  United  States. 

In  La  Plata,  the  Indians  from  the  inland  forests 
gradually  mingle  with  the  whiter  inhabitants  of  the 
coast,  and  become  indistinguishable  from  the  re- 
mainder of  the  population.  In  Canada  and  Tahiti, 
the  French  intermingle  with  the  native  race:  the 
Hurons  are  French  in  everything  but  name.  In 
Kansas,  in  Colorado,  in  New  Mexico,  miscegenation 
will  never  be  brought  about.  The  pride  of  race, 
strong  in  the  English  everywhere,  in  America  and 
Australia  is  an  absolute  bar  to  intermarriage,  and 
even  to  lasting  connections  with  the  aborigines.  What 
has  happened  in  Tasmania  and  Victoria  is  happening 


RED   INDIA.  105 

in  New  Zealand  and  on  the  plains.  When  you  ask 
a  Western  man  his  views  on  the  Indian  question,  he 
says :  "  Well,  sir,  we  can  destroy  them  by  the  laws  of 
war,  or  thin  'em  out  by  whisky;  but  the  thinning 
process  is  plaguy  slow." 

There  are  a  good  many  Southerners  out  upon  the 
plains.  One  of  them,  describing  to  me  how  in  Florida 
they  had  hunted  down  the  Seminoles  with  blood- 
hounds, added,  "And  sarved  the  pesky  sarpints  right, 
sah!"  Southwestern  volunteers,  campaigning  against 
the  Indians,  have  been  known  to  hang  up  in  their 
tents  the  scalps  of  the  slain,  as  we  English  used  to 
nail  up  the  skins  of  the  Danes. 

There  is  in  these  matters  less  hypocrisy  among  the 
Americans  than  with  ourselves.  In  1840,  the  British 
government  assumed  the  sovereignty  of  New  Zealand 
in  a  proclamation  which  set  forth  with  great  precision 
that  it  did  so  for  the  sole  purpose  of  protecting  the 
aborigines  in  the  possession  of  their  lands.  The 
Maories  numbered  200,000  then;  they  number  20,000 
now. 

Among  the  Western  men  there  is  no  difference  of 
opinion  on  the  Indian  question.  Eifle  and  revolver 
are  their  only  policy.  The  New  Englanders,  who  are 
all  for  Christianity  and  kindliness  in  their  dealings 
with  the  red  men,  are  not  similarly  united  in  one  cry. 
Those  who  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  Indian, 
call  out  for  agricultural  employment  for  the  braves; 
those  who  know  nothing  of  the  Indian's  life  demand 
that  "reserves"  be  set  aside  for  him,  forgetting  that 
no  "reserve"  can  be  large  enough  to  hold  the  buffalo, 
and  that  without  the  buffalo  the  red  men  must  plow 
or  starve. 

Indian  civilization  through  the  means  of  agricul- 
ture is  all  but  a  total  failure.  The  Shawriees  are 


106  GEEATER    BRITAIN. 

thriving  near  Kansas  City,  the  Pottawatomies  living 
at  St.  Mary's  mission,  the  Delawares  existing  at 
Leavenworth;  but  in  all  these  cases  there  is  a  large 
infusion  of  white  blood.  The  Canadian  Hurons  are 
completely  civilized;  but  then  they  are  completely 
French.  If  you  succeed  with  an  Indian  to  all  ap- 
pearance, he  will  suddenly  return  to  his  untamed 
state.  An  Indian  girl,  one  of  the  most  orderly  of 
the  pupils  at  a  ladies'  school,  has  been  known,  on 
feeling  herself  aggrieved,  to  withdraw  to  her  room, 
let  down  her  back  hair,  paint  her  face,  and  howl.  The 
same  tendency  showed  itself  in  the  case  of  the  Dela- 
ware chief  who  built  himself  a  white  man's  house, 
and  lived  in  it  thirty  years,  but  then  suddenly  set 
up  his  old  wigwam  in  the  dining-room,  in  disgust. 
Another  bad  case  is  that  of  the  Pawnee  who  visited 
Buchanan,  and  behaved  so  well  that  when  a  young 
Englishman,  who  came  out  soon  after,  told  the  Presi- 
dent that  he  was  going  West,  he  gave  him  a  letter 
to  the  chief,  then  with  his  tribe  in  Northern  Kansas. 
The  Pawnee  read  the  note,  offered  a  pipe,  gravely 
protested  eternal  friendship,  slept  upon  it,  and  next 
morning  scalped  his  visitor  with  his  own  hand. 

The  English  everywhere  attempt  to  introduce  civili- 
zation, or  to  modify  that  which  exists,  in  a  rough-and- 
ready  manner  which  invariably  ends  in  failure  or  in 
the  destruction  of  the  native  race.  A  hundred  years 
of  absolute  rule,  mostly  peaceable,  have  not,  under 
every  advantage,  seen  the  success  of  our  repeated  at- 
tempts to  establish  trial  by  jury  in  Bengal.  For  twenty 
years  the  Maories  have  mixed  with  the  New  Zealand 
colonists  on  nearly  equal  terms,  have  almost  univer- 
sally professed  themselves  Christians,  have  attended 
English  schools,  and  learnt  to  speak  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  to  read  and  write  their  own ;  in  spite  of  all 


RED   INDIA.  107 

this,  a  few  weeks  of  fanatic  outburst  were  enough  to 
reduce  almost  the  whole  race  to  a  condition  of  degraded 
savagery.  The  Indians  of  America  have,  within  the 
few  last  years,  been  caught  and  caged,  given  acres 
where  they  once  had  leagues,  and  told  to  plow  where 
once  they  hunted.  A  pastoral  race,  with  no  concep- 
tion of  property  in  land,  they  have  been  manufactured 
into  freeholders  and  tenant  farmers ;  Western  Ishmael- 
ites,  sprung  of  a  race  which  has  wandered  since  its 
legendary  life  begins,  they  have  been  subjected  to 
homestead  laws  and  title  registrations.  If  our  experi- 
ments in  New  Zealand,  in  India,  on  the  African  coast 
have  failed,  cautious  and  costly  as  they  were,  there  can 
be  no  great  wonder  in  the  unsuccess  that  has  attended 
the  hurried  American  experiments.  It  is  not  for  us, 
who  have  the  past  of  Tasmania  and  the  present  of 
Queensland  to  account  for,  to  do  more  than  record  the 
fact  that  the  Americans  are  not  more  successful  with 
the  red  men  of  Kansas  than  we  with  the  black  men  of 
Australia. 

The  Bosjesman  is  not  a  more  unpromising  subject 
for  civilization  than  the  red  man ;  the  tlte  is  not  even 
gifted  with  the  birthright  of  most  savages,  the  mimetic 
power.  The  black  man,  in  his  dress,  his  farming,  his 
religion,  his  family  life,  is  always  trying  to  imitate  the 
white.  In  the  Indian  there  is  none  of  this :  his  ances- 
tors roamed  over  the  plains — he  will  roam ;  his  ances- 
tors hunted — why  should  not  he  hunt?  The  American 
savage,  like  his  Asiatic  cousins,  is  conservative;  the 
African  changeable,  and  strong  in  imitative  faculties 
of  the  mind.  Just  as  the  Indian  is  less  versatile  than 
the  negro,  so,  if  it  were  possible  gradually  to  change 
his  mode  of  life,  slowly  to  bring  him  to  the  agricul- 
tural state,  he  would  probably  become  a  skillful  and 
laborious  cultivator,  and  worthy  inhabitant  of  the 


108  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Western  soil ;  as  it  is,  he  is  exterminated  before  he  haa 
time  to  learn.  "  Sculp  'em  fust,  and  then  talk  to  'em," 
the  Coloradans  say. 

Peace  commissioners  are  yearly  sent  from  Wash- 
ington to  treat  with  hostile  tribes  upon  the  plains. 
The  Indians  invariably  continue  to  fight  and  rob  till 
winter  is  at  hand ;  but  when  the  snows  appear,  they 
send  in  runners  to  announce  that  they  are  prepared  to 
make  submission.  The  commissioners  appoint  a  place, 
and  the  tribe,  their  relatives,  allies,  and  friends,  come 
down  thousands  strong,  and  enter  upon  debates  which 
are  purposely  prolonged  till  spring.  All  this  time  the 
Indians  are  kept  in  food  and  drink;  whisky  even  is 
illegally  provided  them,  with  the  cognizance  of  the 
authorities,  under  the  name  of  "  hatchets."  Blankets, 
and,  it  is  said,  powder  and  revolvers,  are  supplied  to 
them  as  necessary  to  their  existence  on  the  plains;  but 
when  the  first  of  the  spring  flowers  begin  to  peep  up 
through  the  snow-drifts  on  the  prairies,  they  take  their 
leave,  and  in  a  few  weeks  are  out  again  upon  the  war- 
path, plundering  and  scalping  all  the  whites. 

Judging  from  English  experience  in  the  north,  and 
Spanish  in  Mexico  and  South  America,  it  would  seem 
as  though  the  white  man  and  the  red  cannot  exist  on 
the  same  soil.  Step  by  step  the  English  have  driven 
back  the  braves,  till  New  Englanders  now  remember 
that  there  were  Indians  once  in  Massachusetts,  as  we 
remember  that  once  there  were  bears  in  Hampshire. 
King  Philip's  defeat  by  the  Connecticut  volunteers 
seems  to  form  part  of  the  early  legendary  history  of 
our  race ;  yet  there  is  still  standing,  and  in  good  re- 
pair, in  Dorchester,  a  suburb  of  Boston,  a  frame-house 
which  in  its  time  has  been  successfully  defended  against 
Red  Indians.  On  the  other  hand,  step  by  step,  since 
the  days  of  Cortez,  the  Indians  and  half-bloods  have 


RED   INDIA.  109 

driven  out  the  Spaniards  from  Mexico  and  South 
America.  White  men,  Spaniards,  received  Maximilian 
at  Vera  Cruz,  but  he  was  shot  by  full-blooded  Indians 
at  Queretaro. 

If  any  attempt  is  to  be  made  to  save  the  Indians 
that  remain,  it  must  be  worked  out  in  the  Eastern 
States.  Hitherto  the  whites  have  but  pushed  back  the 
Indians  westward:  if  they  would  rescue  the  remnant 
from  starvation,  they  must  bring  them  East,  away 
from  Western  men  and  Western  hunting-grounds,  and 
let  them  intermingle  with  the  whites,  living,  farming, 
along  with  them,  intermarrying,  if  possible.  The 
hunting  Indian  is  too  costly  a  being  for  our  age ;  but 
we  are  bound  to  remember  that  ours  is  the  blame  of 
having  failed  to  teach  him  to  be  something  better. 

After  all,  if  the  Indian  is  mentally,  morally,  and 
physically  inferior  to  the  white  man,  it  is  in  every  way 
for  the  advantage  of  the  world  that  the  next  genera- 
tion that  inhabits  Colorado  should  consist  of  whites 
instead  of  reds.  That  this  result  should  not  be  brought 
about  by  cruelty  or  fraud  upon  the  now  existing  In- 
dians is  all  that  we  need  require.  The  gradual  extinc- 
tion of  the  inferior  races  is  not  only  a  law  of  nature, 
but  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

The  Indian  question  is  not  likely  to  be  one  much 
longer :  before  I  reached  England  again,  I  learnt  that 
the  Coloradan  capital  had  offered  "twenty  dollars 
a  piece  for  Indian  scalps  with  the  ears  on." 


10 


110  GREATER  BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

COLORADO. 

WHEN  you  have  once  set  eyes  upon  the  never-ending 
sweep  of  the  Great  Plains,  you  no  longer  wonder  that 
America  rejects  Malthusianism.  As  Strachey  says  of 
Virginia,  "Here  is  ground  enough  to  satisfy  the  most 
covetous  and  wide  affection."  The  freedom  of  these 
grand  countries  was  worth  the  tremendous  conflict  in 
which  it  was,  in  reality,  the  foremost  question;  their 
future  is  of  enormous  moment  to  America. 

Travelers  soon  learn,  when  making  estimates  of  a 
country's  value,  to  despise  no  feature  of  the  landscape; 
that  of  the  plains  is  full  of  life,  full  of  charm — lonely, 
indeed,  but  never  wearisome.  Now  great  rolling  up- 
lands of  enormous  sweep,  now  boundless  grassy  plains; 
there  is  all  the  grandeur  of  monotony,  and  yet  con- 
tinual change.  Sometimes  the  grand  distances  are 
broken  by  blue  buttes  or  rugged  bluffs.  Over  all  there 
is  a  sparkling  atmosphere  and  never-failing  breeze ;  the 
air  is  bracing  even  when  most  hot ;  the  sky  is  cloud- 
less, and  no  rain  falls.  A  solitude  which  no  words  can 
paint,  and  the  boundless  prairie  swell,  convey  an  idea 
of  vastness  which  is  the  overpowering  feature  of  the 
plains. 

Maps  do  not  remove  the  impression  produced  by 
views.  The  Arkansas  River,  which  is  born  and  dies 
within  the  limit  of  the  plains,  is  two  thousand  miles 
in  length,  and  is  navigable  for  eight  hundred  miles. 
The  Platte  and  Yellowstone  are  each  of  them  as  long. 


COLORADO.  HI 

Into  the  plains  and  plateau  you  could  put  all  India 
twice.  The  impression  is  not  merely  one  of  size. 
There  is  perfect  beauty,  wondrous  fertility,  in  the 
lonely  steppe;  no  patriotism,  no  love  of  home,  can  pre- 
vent the  traveler  wishing  here  to  end  his  days. 

To  those  who  love  the  sea,  there  is  a  double  charm. 
Not  only  is  the  roll  of  the  prairie  as  grand  as  that  of 
the  Atlantic,  but  the  crispness  of  the  wind,  the  ab- 
sence of  trees,  the  multitude  of  tiny  blooms  upon  the 
sod,  all  conspire  to  give  a  feeling  of  nearness  to  the 
ocean,  the  eifect  of  which  is  we  are  always  expecting 
to  hail  it  from  off' the  top  of  the  next  hillock. 

The  resemblance  to  the  Tartar  plains  has  been  re- 
marked by  Coloradan  writers;  it  may  be  traced  much 
farther  than  they  have  carried  it.  Not  only  are  the 
earth,  air,  and  water  much  alike,  but  in  Colorado,  as 
in  Bokhara,  there  are  oil  wells  and  mud  volcanoes. 
The  color  of  the  landscape  is,  in  summer,  green  and 
flowers;  in  fall-time,  yellow  and  flowers,  but  flowers 
ever. 

The  eastern  and  western  portions  of  the  plains  are 
not  alike.  In  Kansas  the  grass  is  tall  and  rank;  the 
ravines  are  filled  with  cottonwood,  hickory,  and  black 
walnut;  here  and  there  are  square  miles  of  sunflowers, 
from  seven  to  nine  feet  high.  As  we  came  west,  we 
found  that  the  sunflowers  dwindled,  and  at  Denver 
they  are  only  from  three  to  nine  inches  in  height,  the 
oddest  little  plants  in  nature,  but  thorough  sunflowers 
for  all  their  smallness.  We  found  the  buffalo  in  the 
eastern  plains  in  the  long  bunch-grass,  but  in  the  win- 
ter they  work  to  the  west  in  search  of  the  sweet  and 
juicy  "blue  grass,"  which  they  rub  out  from  under  the 
snow  in  the  Coloradan  plains.  This  grass  is  crisp  as 
hair,  and  so  short  that,  as  the  story  goes,  you  must 
lather  before  you  can  mow  it.  The  "blue  grass"  has 


112  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

high  vitality:  if  a  wagon  train  is  camped  for  a  single 
night  among  the  sunflowers  or  tall  weeds,  this  crisp 
turf  at  once  springs  up,  and  holds  the  ground  forever. 

The  most  astounding  feature  of  these  plains  is 
their  capacity  to  receive  millions,  and,  swallowing  them 
up,  to  wait  open-mouthed  for  more.  Vast  and  silent, 
fertile  yet  waste,  fieldlike  yet  untilled,  they  have 
room  for  the  Huns,  the  Goths,  the  Vandals,  for  all 
the  teeming  multitudes  that  have  poured  and  can 
pour  from  the  plains  of  Asia  and  of  Central  Europe. 
Twice  as  large  as  Hindostan,  more  temperate,  more 
habitable,  nature  has  been  placed  here  hedgeless, 
gateless,  free  to  all — a  green  field  for  the  support  of 
half  the  human  race,  unclaimed,  untouched,  awaiting 
smiling,  hands  and  plow. 

There  are  two  curses  upon  this  land.  Here,  as  in 
India,  the  rivers  depend  on  the  melting  of  distant 
snows  for  their  supplies,  and  in  the  hot  weather  are 
represented  by  beds  of  parched  white  sand.  So  hot 
and  dry  is  a  great  portion  of  the  land,  that  crops 
require  irrigation.*  Water  for  drinking  purposes  is 
scarce;  artesian  bores  succeed,  but  they  are  some- 
what costly  for  the  Coloradan  purse,  and  the  supply 
from  common  wells  is  brackish.  This,  perhaps,  may 
in  part  account  for  the  Western  mode  of  "prospect- 
ing" after  water,  under  which  it  is  agreed  that  if  none 
be  found  at  ten  feet,  a  trial  shall  be  made  at  a  fresh 
spot.  The  thriftless  ranchman  had  sooner  find  bad 
water  at  nine  feet  than  good  at  eleven. 

Irrigation  by  means  of  dams  and  reservoirs,  such  as 
those  we  are  building  in  Victoria,  is  but  a  question  of 
cost  and  time.  The  never-failing  breezes  of  the  plains 
may  be  utilized  for  water-raising,  and  with  water  all 
is  possible.  Even  in  the  mountain  plateau,  overspread 
as  it  is  with  soda,  it  has  been  found,  as  it  has  been  by 


COLOEADO.  113 

x 

French  farmers  in  Algeria,  that,  under  irrigation,  the 
more  alkali  the  better  corn  crop. 

When  fires  are  held  in  check  by  special  enactments, 
such  as  those  which  have  been  passed  in  Victoria  and 
South  Australia,  and  the  waters  of  the  winter  streams 
retained  for  summer  use  by  tanks  and  dams;  when 
artesian  wells  are  frequent  and  irrigation  general,  belts 
of  timber  will  become  possible  upon  the  plains.  Once 
planted,  these  will  in  their  turn  mitigate  the  extremes 
of  climate,  and  keep  alike  in  check  the  forces  of  evap- 
oration, sun,  and  wind.  Cultivation  itself  brings  rain, 
and  steam  will  soon  be  available  for  pumping  water 
out  of  wells,  for  there  is  a  great  natural  store  of  brown 
coal  and  of  oil-bearing  shale  near  Denver,  so  that  all 
would  be  well  were  it  not  for  the  locusts — the  scourge 
of  the  plains — the  second  curse.  The  coming  of  the 
chirping  hordes  is  a  real  calamity  in  these  far-western 
countries.  Their  departure,  whenever  it  occurs,  is  offi- 
cially announced  by  the  governor  of  the  State. 

I  have  seen  a  field  of  indian-corn  stripped  bare  of 
every  leaf  and  cob  by  the  crickets;  but  the  owner  told 
me  that  he  found  consolation  in  the  fact  that  they  ate 
up  the  weeds  as  well.  For  the  locusts  there  is  no  cure. 
The  plovers  may  eat  a  few  billions,  but,  as  a  rule,  Colo- 
radans  must  learn  to  expect  that  the  locusts  will  in- 
crease with  the  increase  of  the  crops  on  which  they 
feed.  The  more  corn,  the  more  locusts — the  more 
plovers,  perhaps ;  a  clear  gain  to  the  locusts  and  plo- 
vers, but  a  dead  loss  to  the  farmers  and  ranchmen. 

The  Coloradan  "boys"  are  a  handsome,  intelligent 
race.  The  mixture  of  Celtic  and  Saxon  blood  has  here 
produced  a  generous  and  noble  manhood ;  and  the 
freedom  from  wood,  and  consequent  exposure  to  wind 
and  sun,  has  exterminated  ague,  and  driven  away  the 
hatchet-face ;  but  for  all  this,  the  Coloradans  may  have 

10* 


114  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

to  succumb  to  the  locusts.  At  present  they  affect  to 
despise  them.  "How  may  you  get  on  in  Colorado?" 
said  a  Missouriaii  one  day  to  a  "  boy"  that  was  up  at 
St.  Louis.  "  Purty  well,  guess,  if  it  warn't  for  the  in- 
sects." "  What  insects?  Crickets?"  "Crickets!  Wall, 
guess  not — -jess  insects  like:  rattlesnakes, panther, bar, 
catamount,  and  sichlike." 

"  The  march  of  empire  stopped  by  a  grasshopper" 
would  be  a  good  heading  for  a  Denver  paper,  but  would 
not  represent  a  fact.  The  locusts  may  alter  the  step, 
but  not  cause  a  halt.  If  corn  is  impossible,  cattle  are 
not;  already  thousands  are  pastured  round  Denver  on 
the  natural  grass.  For  horses,  for  merino  sheep,  these 
rolling  table-lands  are  peculiarly  adapted.  The  New 
Zealand  paddock  system  may  be  applied  to  the  whole 
of  this  vast  region — Dutch  clover,  French  lucern,  could 
replace  the  Indian  grasses,  and  four  sheep  to  the  acre 
would  seem  no  extravagant  estimate  of  the  carrying 
capability  of  the  lands.  The  world  must  come  here 
for  its  tallow,  its  wool,  its  hides,  its  food. 

In  this  seemingly  happy  conclusion  there  lurks  a 
danger.  Flocks  and  herds  are  the  main  props  of  great 
farming,  the  natural  supporters  of  an  aristocracy.  Cat- 
tle breeding  is  inconsistent,  if  not  with  republicanism, 
at  least  with  pure  democracy.  There  are  dangerous 
classes  of  two  kinds — those  who  have  too  many  acres, 
as  well  as  those  who  have  too  few.  The  danger  at 
least  is  real.  Nothing  short  of  violence  or  special 
legislation  can  prevent  the  plains  from  continuing  to 
be  forever  that  which  under  nature's  farming  they 
have  ever  been — the  feeding  ground  for  mighty  flocks, 
the  cattle  pasture  of  the  world. 


ROCKY  MOUNTAINS.  115 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ROCKY   MOUNTAINS. 

"WHAT  will  I  do  for  you  if  you  stop  here  among  us? 
"Why,  I'll  name  that  peak  after  you  in  the  next  survey," 
said  Governor  Gilpin,  pointing  to  a  snowy  mountain 
towering  to  its  15,000  feet  in  the  direction  of  Mount 
Lincoln.  I  was  not  to  be  tempted,  however;  and  as 
for  Dixon,  there  is  already  a  county  named  after  him 
in  Nebraska :  so  oft'  we  went  along  the  foot  of  the 
hills  on  our  road  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  following  the 
"Cherokee  Trail." 

Striking  north  from  Denver  by  Vasquez  Fork  and 
Cache  la  Poudre — called  "Cash  le  Powder,"  just  as 
Mont  Royal  has  become  Montreal,  and  Sault  de  Ste 
Marie,  Soo — we  entered  the  Black  Mountains,  or  East- 
ern foot-hills,  at  Beaver  Creek.  On  the  second  day,  at 
two  in  the  afternoon,  we  reached  Virginia  Dale  for 
breakfast,  without  adventure,  unless  it  were  the  shoot- 
ing of  a  monster  rattlesnake  that  lay  "  coiled  in  our 
path  upon  the  mountain  side."  Had  we  been  but  a 
few  minutes  later,  we  should  have  made  it  a  halt  for 
"supper"  instead  of  breakfast,  as  the  drivers  had  but 
these  two  names  for  our  daily  meals,  at  whatever  hour 
they  took  place.  Our  "  breakfasts"  varied  from  3.30 
A.M.  to  2  P.M.;  our  suppeis  from  3  P.M.  to  2  A.M. 

Here  we  found  the  weird  red  rocks  that  give  to  the 
river  and  the  territory  their  name  of  Colorado,  and 
came  upon  the  mountain  plateau  at  the  spot  where  last 
year  the  Utes  scalped  seven  men  only  three  hours  after 


116  GEE  ATE  E  BEITAIN. 

Speaker  Colfax  and  a  Congressional  party  had  passed 
with  their  escort. 

While  trundling  over  the  sandy  wastes  of  Laramie 
Plains,  we  sighted  the  Wind  River  chain  drawn  by 
Bierstadt  in  his  great  picture  of  the  "Hocky  Mount- 
ains." The  painter  has  caught  the  forms,  but  missed 
the  atmosphere  of  the  range :  the  clouds  and  mists 
are  those  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts ;  there  is  color 
more  vivid,  darkness  more  lurid,  in  the  storms  of  Col- 
orado. 

This  was  our  first  sight  of  the  main  range  since  we 
entered  the  Black  Hills,  although  we  passed  through 
the  gorges  at  the  very  foot  of  Long's  Peak.  It  was 
not  till  we  had  reached  the  rolling  hills  of  "  Medicine 
Bow" — a  hundred  miles  beyond  the  peak — that  we 
once  more  caught  sight  of  it  shining  in  the  rear. 

In  the  night  between  the  second  and  third  days  the 
frost  was  so  bitter  at  the  great  altitude  to  which  we 
had  attained,  that  we  resorted  to  every  expedient  to 
keep  out  the  cold.  While  I  was  trying  to  peg  down 
one  of  the  leathern  flaps  of  our  ambulance  with  the 
pencil  from  my  note-book,  my  eye  caught  the  moon- 
light on  the  ground,  and  I  drew  back  saying,  "  We  are 
on  the  snow."  The  next  time  we  halted,  I  found  that 
what  I  had  seen  was  an  impalpable  white  dust,  the 
much  dreaded  alkali. 

In  the  morning  of  the  third  day  we  found  ourselves 
in  a  country  of  dazzling  white,  dotted  with  here  and 
there  a  tuft  of  sage-brush — an  Artemisia  akin  to  that 
of  the  Algerian  highlands.  At  last  we  were  in  the 
" American  desert" — the  "  Mauvaises  terres." 

Once  only  did  we  escape  for  a  time  from  alkali  and 
sage  to  sweet  waters  and  sweet  grass.  Near  Bridger's 
Pass  and  the  "divide"  between  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
floods,  we  came  on  a  long  valley  swept  by  chilly 


ROCKY  MOUNTAINS.  117 

breezes,  and  almost  unfit  for  human  habitation  from 
the  rarefaction  of  the  air,  but  blessed  with  pasture 
ground  on  which  domesticated  herds  of  Himalayan 
yak  should  one  day  feed.  Settlers  in  Utah  will  find  out 
that  this  animal,  which  would  flourish  here  at  altitudes 
of  from  4000  to  14,000  feet,  and  which  bears  the  most 
useful  of  all  furs,  requires  less  herbage  in  proportion 
to  its  weight  and  size  than  almost  any  animal  we 
know. 

This  Bridger's  Pass  route  is  that  by  which  the  tele- 
graph line  runs,  and  I  was  told  by  the  drivers  strange 
stories  of  the  Indians  and  their  views  on  this  great 
Medicine.  They  never  destroy  out  of  mere  wanton- 
ness, but  have  been  known  to  cut  the  wire  and  then 
lie  in  ambush  in  the  neighborhood,  knowing  that  re- 
pairing parties  would  arrive  and  fall  an  easy  prey. 
Having  come  one  morning  upon  three  armed  over- 
landers  lying  fast  asleep,  while  a  fourth  kept  guard  by 
a  fire  which  coincided  with  a  gap  in  the  posts,  but 
which  was  far  from  any  timber  or  even  scrub,  I  have 
my  doubts  as  to  whether  "white  Indians"  have  not 
much  to  do  with  the  destruction  of  the  line. 

From  one  of  the  uplands  of  the  Artemisia  barrens 
we  sighted  at  once  Fremont's  Peak  on  the  north, 
and  another  great  snow-dome  upon  the  south.  The 
unknown  mountain  was  both  the  more  distant  and  the 
loftier  of  the  two,  yet  the  maps  mark  no  chain  within 
eyeshot  to  the  southward.  The  country  on  either  side 
of  this  well-worn  track  is  still  as  little  known  as  when 
Captain  Stansbury  explored  it  in  1850 ;  and  when  we 
crossed  the  Green  River,  as  the  Upper  Colorado  is 
called,  it  was  strange  to  remember  that  the  stream  is 
here  lost  in  a  thousand  miles  of  undiscovered  wilds,  to 
be  found  again  flowing  toward  Mexico.  Near  the 
ferry  is  the  place  where  Albert  S.  Johnson's  mule- 


118  GEE  ATE  R   BRITAIN. 

trains  were  captured  by  the  Mormons  under  General 
Lot  Smith. 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  we  would  come  upon 
mule-trains  starting  on  their  march  in  order  to  avoid 
the  mid-day  sun,  and  thus  save  water,  which  they  are 
sometimes  forced  to  carry  with  them  for  as  much  as 
fifty  miles.  When  we  found  them  halted,  they  were 
always  camped  on  bluffs  and  in  bends,  far  from  rocks 
and  tufts,  behind  which  the  Indians  might  creep  and 
stampede  the  cattle :  this  they  do  by  suddenly  swoop- 
ing down  with  fearful  noises,  and  riding  in  among  the 
mules  or  oxen  at  full  speed.  The  beasts  break  away 
in  their  fright,  and  are  driven  off  before  the  sentries 
have  time  to  turn  out  thaxamp. 

On  the  fourth  day  from  Denver,  the  scenery  was 
tame  enough,  but  strange  in  the  extreme.  Its  charac- 
teristic feature  was  its  breadth.  No  longer  the  rocky 
defiles  of  Virginia  Dale,  no  longer  the  glimpses  of  the 
main  range  as  from  Laramie  Plains  and  the  foot-hills 
of  Medicine  Bow,  but  great  rolling  downs  like  those 
of  the  plains  much  magnified.  We  crossed  one  of  the 
highest  passes  in  the  world  without  seeing  snow,  but 
looked  back  directly  we  were  through  it  on  snow-fields 
behind  us  and  all  around. 

At  Elk  Mountain  we  suffered  greatly  from  the  frost, 
but  by  mid  day  we  were  taking  off  our  coats,  and  the 
mules  hanging  their  heads  in  the  sun  once  more,  while 
those  which  should  have  taken  their  places  were,  as 
the  ranchman  expressed  it,  "  kicking  their  heels  in  pure 
cussedness"  at  a  stream  some  ten  miles  away. 

While  walking  before  the  "hack"  through  the 
burning  sand  of  Bitter  Creek,  I  put  up  a  bird  as  big 
as  a  turkey,  which  must,  I  suppose,  have  been  a  vul- 
ture. The  sage-brush  growing  here  as  much  as  three 
feet  high,  and  as  stout  and  gnarled  as  century-old 


ROCKY  MOUNTAINS.  119 

heather,  gave  shelter  to  a  few  coveys  of  sage-hens,  at 
which  we  shot  without  much  success,  although  they 
seldom  ran,  and  never  rose.  Their  color  is  that  of  the 
brush  itself— a  yellowish  gray — and  it  is  as  hard  to  see 
them  as  to  pick  up  a  partridge  on  a  sun-dried  fallow  at 
home  in  England.  Of  wolves  and  rattlesnakes  there 
were  plenty,  but  of  big  game  we  saw  but  little,  only  a 
few  black-tails  in  the  day. 

This  track  is  more  traveled  by  trains  than  is  the 
Smoky  Hill  route,  which  accounts  for  the  absence  of 
game  on  the  line ;  but  that  there  is  plenty  close  at 
hand  is  clear  from  the  way  we  were  fed.  Smoky  Hill 
starvation  was  forgotten  in  piles  of  steaks  of  elk  and 
antelope ;  but  still  no  fruit,  no  vegetable,  no  bread,  no 
drink  save  "  sage-brush  tea,"  and  that  half  poisoned 
with  the  water  of  the  alkaline  cree.ks. 

Jerked  buffalo  had  disappeared  from  our  meals. 
The  droves  never  visit  the  Sierra  Madre  now,  and  sci- 
entific books  have  said  that  in  the  mountains  they  were 
ever  unknown.  In  Bridger's  Pass  we  saw  the  skulls  of 
not  less  than  twenty  buffalo,  which  is  proof  enough 
that  they  once  were  here,  though  perhaps  long  ago. 
The  skin  and  bones  will  last  about  a  year  after  the 
beast  has  died,  for  the  wolves  tear  them  to  pieces  to 
get  at  the  marrow  within,  but  the  skull  they  never 
touch  ;  and  the  oldest  ranchman  failed  to  give  me  an 
answer  as  to  how  long  skulls  and  horns  might  last. 
"We  saw  no  buffalo  roads  like  those  across  the  plains. 

From  the  absence  of  buffalo,  absence  of  birds,  ab- 
sence of  flowers,  absence  even  of  Indians,  the  Rocky 
Mountain  plateau  is  more  of  a  solitude  than  are  the 
plains.  It  takes  days  to  see  this,  for  you  naturally  no- 
tice it  less.  On  the  plains,  the  glorious  climate,  the 
masses  of  rich  blooming  plants,  the  millions  of  beasts, 
and  insects,  and  birds,  all  seem  prepared  to  the  hand 


120  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

of  man,  and  for  man  you  are  continually  searching. 
Each  time  you  round  a  hill,  you  look  for  the  smoke  of 
the  farm.  Here  on  the  mountains  you  feel  as  you  do 
on  the  sea:  it  is  nature's  own  lone  solitude,  but  from 
no  fault  of  ours — the  higher  parts  of  the  plateau  were 
not  made  for  man. 

Early  on  the  fifth  night  we  dashed  suddenly  out  of 
utter  darkness  into  a  mountain  glen  blazing  with  fifty 
fires,  and  perfumed  with  the  scent  of  burning  cedar. 
As  many  wagons  as  there  were  fires  were  corraled  in 
an  ellipse  about  the  road,  and  600  cattle  were  pastured 
within  the  fire-glow  in  rich  grass  that  told  of  water. 
Men  and  women  were  seated  round  the  camp-fires 
praying  and  singing  hymns.  As  we  drove  in,  they 
rose  and  cheered  us  "  on  your  way  to  Zion."  Our  Gen- 
tile driver  yelled  back  the  warhoop  "How!  How! 
How!  How — w!  We'll  give  yer  love  to  Brigham;" 
and  back  went  the  poor  travelers  to  their  prayers 
again.  It  was  a  bull  train  of  the  Mormon  immigra- 
tion. 

Five  minutes  after  we  had  passed  the  camp  we  were 
back  in  civilization,  and  plunged  into  polygamous  so- 
ciety all  at  once,  with  Bishop  Myers,  the  keeper  of 
Bear  River  Ranch,  drawing  water  from  the  well,  while 
Mrs.  Myers  "No.  1  cooked  the  chops,  and  Mrs.  Myers 
No.  2  laid  the  table  neatly. 

The  kind  bishop  made  us  sit  before  the  fire  till  we 
were  warm,  and  filled  our  "hack"  with  hay,  that  we 
might  continue  so,  and  off  we  went,  inclined  to  look 
favorably  on  polygamy  after  such  experience  of  polyg- 
amists. 

Leaving  Bear  River  about  midnight,  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day  we  commenced  the 
descent  of  Echo  Canyon,  the  grandest  of  all  the  gully 
passes  of  the  Wasatch  Range.  The  night  was  so  clear 


ROCKY  MOUNTAINS.  121 

that  I  was  able  to  make  some  outline  sketches  of  the 
cliffs  from  the  ranch  where  we  changed  mules.  Echo 
Canyon  is  the  Thermopylae  of  Utah,  the  pass  that  the 
Mormons  fortified  against  the  United  States  forces 
under  Albert  S.  Johnson  at  the  time  of  "  Buchanan's 
raid."  Twenty-six  miles  long,  often  not  more  than  a 
few  yards  wide  at  the  bottom,  and  a  few  hundred  feet 
at  the  top,  with  an  overhanging  cliff  on  the  north  side, 
and  a  mountain  wall  on  the  south,  Echo  Canyon  would 
be  no  easy  pass  to  force.  Government  will  do  well  to 
prevent  the  Pacific  Railroad  from  following  this  defile. 

After  breakfast  at  Coalville,  the  Mormon  Newcastle, 
situated  in  a  smiling  valley  not  unlike  that  between 
Martigny  and  S'aint  Maurice,  we  dashed  on  past  Kim- 
ball's  Ranch,  where  we  once  more  hitched  horses  in- 
stead of  mules,  and  began  our  descent  of  seventeen 
miles  down  Big  Canyon,  the  best  of  all  the  passes  of 
the  Wasatch.  Rounding  a  spur  at  the  end  of  our  six- 
hundredth  mile  from  Denver,  we  first  sighted  the  Mor- 
mon promised  land. 

The  sun  was  setting  over  the  great  dead  lake  to  our 
right,  lighting  up  the  valley  with  a  silvery  gleam  from 
Jordan  River,  and  the  hills  with  a  golden  glow  from  off 
the  snow-fields  of  the  many  mountain  chains  and  peaks 
around.  In  our  front,  the  Oquirrh,  or  Western  Range, 
stood  out  in  sharp  purple  outlines  upon  a  sea-colored 
sky.  To  our  left  were  the  Utah  Mountains,  blushing 
rose,  all  about  our  heads  the  Wasatch  glowing  in 
orange  and  gold.  From  the  flat  valley  in  the  sunny 
distance  rose  the  smoke  of  many  houses,  the  dust  of 
many  droves ;  on  the  bench-land  of  Ensign  Peak,  on 
the  lake  side,  white  houses  peeped  from  among  the 
peach-trees,  modestly,  and  hinted  the  presence  of  the 
city. 

Here  was  Plato's  table-land  of  the  Atlantic  isle — one 

11 


122  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

great  field  of  corn  and  wheat,  where  only  twenty  years 
ago  Fremont,  the  pathfinder,  reported  wheat  and  corn 
impossible. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

BRIGHAM   YOUNG. 

"  I  LOOK  upon  Mohammed  and  Brigham  as  the  very 
best  men  that  God  could  send  as  ministers  to  those 
unto  whom  He  sent  them,"  wrote  Elder  Frederick 
Evans,  of  the  "  Shaker"  village  of  New  Lebanon,  in  a 
letter  to  us,  inclosing  another  by  way  of  introduction 
to  the  Mormon  president. 

Credentials  from  the  Shaker  to  the  Mormon  chief — 
from  the  great  living  exponent  of  the  principle  of  celi- 
bacy to  the  "  most  married"  in  all  America — were  not 
to  be  kept  undelivered ;  so  the  moment  we  had  bathed 
we  posted  off  to  a  merchant  to  whom  we  had  letters, 
that  we  might  inquire  when  his  spiritual  chief  and 
military  ruler  would  be  home  again  from  his  "trip 
north."  The  answer  was,  "To-morrow." 

After  watching  the  last  gleams  fade  from  the  snow- 
fields  upon  the  Wasatch,  we  parted  for  the  night,  as  I 
had  to  sleep  in  a  private  house,  the  hotel  being  filled 
even  to  the  balcony.  As  I  entered  the  drawing-room 
of  my  entertainer,  I  heard  the  voice  of  a  lady  reading, 
and  caught  enough  of  what  she  said  to  be  aware  that 
it  was  a  defense  of  polygamy.  She  ceased  when  she 
saw  the  stranger ;  but  I  found  that  it  was  my  host's 
first  wife  reading  Belinda  Pratt's  book  to  her  daughters 
— girls  just  blooming  into  womanhood. 


BEIGHAM  YOUNG.  123 

After  an  agreeable  chat  with  the  ladies,  doubly 
pleasant  as  it  followed  upon  a  long  absence  from 
civilization,  I  went  to  my  room,  which  I  afterward 
found  to  be  that  of  the  eldest  son,  a  youth  of  sixteen 
years.  In  one  corner  stood  two  Ballard  rifles,  and 
two  revolvers  and  a  militia  uniform  hung  from  pegs 
upon  the  wall.  When  I  lay  down  with  my  hands  under- 
neath the  pillow — an  attitude  instinctively  adopted  to 
escape  the  sand-flies,  I  touched  something  cold.  I  felt 
it — a  full-sized  Colt,  and  capped.  Such  was  my  first 
introduction  to  Utah  Mormonism. 

On  the  morrow,  we  had  the  first  and  most  formal 
of  our  four  interviews  with  the  Mormon  president,  the 
conversation  lasting  three  hours,  and  all  the  leading 
men  of  the  church  being  present.  When  we  rose  to 
leave,  Brigham  said:  "Come  to  see  me  here  again; 
Brother  Stenhouse  will  show  you  everything;"  and 
then  blessed  us  in  these  words:  "Peace  be  with  you, 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Elder  Stenhouse  followed  us  out  of  the  presence, 
and  somewhat  anxiously  put  the  odd  question :  "  Well, 
is  he  a  white  man?"  "  White"  is  used  in  Utah  as  a 
general  term  of  praise :  a  white  man  is  a  man — to  use 
our  corresponding  idiom — not  so  black  as  he  is  painted. 
A  "white  country"  is  a  country  with  grass  and  trees; 
just  as  a  white  man  means  a  man  who  is  morally  not  a 
Ute,  so  a  white  country  is  a  land  in  which  others  than 
Utes  can  dwell. 

We  made  some  complimentary  answer  to  Sten- 
house's  question;  but  it  was  impossible  not  to  feel 
that  the  real  point  was :  Is  Brigham  sincere  ? 

Brigham's  deeds  have  been  those  of  a  sincere  man. 
His  bitterest  opponents  cannot  dispute  the  fact  that 
in  1844,  when  Nauvoo  was  about  to  be  deserted, 
owing  to  the  attacks  of  a  ruffianly  mob,  Brigham 


124  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

rushed  to  the  front,  and  took  the  chief  command 
To  be  a  Mormon  leader  then  was  to  be  a  leader  of 
an  outcast  people,  with  a  price  set  on  his  head,  in 
a  Missourian  county  in  which  almost  every  man  who 
was  not  a  Mormon  was  by  profession  an  assassin.  In 
the  sense,  too,  of  believing  that  he  is  what  he  pro- 
fesses to  be,  Brigham  is  undoubtedly  sincere.  In  the 
wider  sense  of  being  that  which  he  professes  to  be 
he  comes  off  as  well,  if  only  we  will  read  his  words 
in  the  way  he  speaks  them.  He  tells  us  that  he  is 
a  prophet — God's  representative  on  earth;  but  when 
I  asked  him  whether  he  was  of  a  wholly  different 
spiritual  rank  to  that  held  by  other  devout  men,  he 
said:  "By  no  means.  I  am  a  prophet — one  of  many. 
All  good  men  are  prophets;  but  God  has  blessed  me 
with  peculiar  favor  in  revealing  His  will  oftener  and 
more  clearly  through  me  than  through  other  men." 

Those  who  would  understand  Brigham's  revelations 
must  read  Bentham.  The  leading  Mormons  are  utili- 
tarian deists.  "God's  will  be  done,"  they,  like  other 
deists,  say  is  to  be  our  rule;,  and  God's  will  they  find 
in  written  Revelation  and  in  Utility.  God  has  given 
men,  by  the  actual  hand  of  angels,  the  Bible,  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  the  Book  of  Covenants,  the  revelation 
upon  Plural  Marriage.  When  these  are  exhausted, 
man,  seeking  for  God's  will,  has  to  turn  to  the  princi- 
ple of  Utility :  that  which  is  for  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind— that  is  of  the  church — is  God's  will,  and  must  be 
done.  While  Utility  is  their  only  index  to  God's 
pleasure,  they  admit  that  the  church  must  be  ruled — 
that  opinions  may  differ  as  to  what  is  the  good  of  the 
church,  and  therefore  the  will  of  God.  They  meet, 
then,  annually,  in  an  assembly  of  the  people,  and  elect- 
ing church  officers  by  popular  will  and  acclamation, 
they  see  God's  finger  in  the  ballot-box.  They  say, 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG.  125 

like  the  Jews  in  the  election  of  their  judges,- that  the 
choice  of  the  people  is  the  choice  of  God.  This  is 
what  men  like  John  Taylor  or  Daniel  Wells  appear  to 
feel;  the  ignorant  are  permitted  to  look  upon  Brig- 
ham  as  something  more  than  man,  and  though  Brig- 
ham  himself  does  nothing  to  confirm  this  view,  the 
leaders  foster  the  delusion.  When  I  asked  Stenhouse, 
"Has  Brigham's  re-election  as  prophet  ever  been  op- 
posed?" he  answered  sharply,  "I  should  like  to  see 
the  man  who'd  do  it." 

Brigham's  personal  position  is  a  strange  one :  he 
calls  himself  prophet,  and  declares  that  he  has  reve- 
lations from  God  himself,  but  when  you  ask  him  quietly 
what  all  this  means,  you  find  that  for  prophet  you 
should  read  political  philosopher.  He  sees  that  a  canal 
from  Utah  Lake  to  Salt  Lake  Valley  would  be  of  vast 
utility  to  the  church  and  people — that  a  new  settle- 
ment is  urgently  required.  He  thinks  about  these 
things  till  they  dominate  in  his  mind,  and  take 
in  his  brain  the  shape  of  physical  creations.  He 
dreams  of  the  canal,  the  city;  sees  them  before  him 
in  his  waking  moments.  That  which  is  so  clearly  for 
the  good  of  God's  people  becomes  God's  will.  Next 
Sunday  at  the  Tabernacle  he  steps  to  the  front,  and 
says :  "  God  has  spoken ;  He  has  said  unto  his  prophet, 
6  Get  thee  up,  Brigham,  and  build  Me  a  city  in  the 
fertile  valley  to  the  South,  where  there  is  water,  where 
there  are  fish,  where  the  sun  is  strong  enough  to  ripen 
the  cotton  plants,  and  give  raiment  as  well  as  food  to 
My  saints  on  earth.'  Brethren  willing  to  aid  God's 
work  should  come  to  me  before  the  Bishops'  meeting." 
As  the  prophet  takes  his  seat  again,  and  puts  on  his 
broad-brimmed  hat,  a  hum  of  applause  runs  round  the 
bowery,  and  teams  and  barrows  are  freely  promised. 

Sometimes  the  canal,  the  bridge,  the  city  may  prove 
11* 


126  GEE  ATE  R   BRITAIN. 

a  failure,-  but  this  is  not  concealed ;  the  prophet's  hu- 
man tongue  may  blunder  even  when  he  is  communi- 
cating holy  things. 

"After  all,"  Brigbam  said  to  me  the  day  before  I 
left,  "  the  highest  inspiration  is  good  sense — the  know- 
ing what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it." 

In  all  this  it  is  hard  for  us,  with  our  English  hatred 
of  casuistry  and  hair-splitting,  to  see  sincerity;  still, 
given  his  foundation,  Brigham  is  sincere.  Like  other 
political  religionists,  he  must  feel  himself  morally 
bound  to  stick  at  nothing  when  the  interests  of  the 
church  are  at  stake.  To  prefer  man's  life  or  property 
to  the  service  of  God  must  be  a  crime  in  such  a  church. 
The  Mormons  deny  the  truth  of  the  murder-stories 
alleged  against  the  Danites,  but  they  avoid  doing  so 
in  sweeping  or  even  general  terms — though,  if  need 
were,  of  course  they  would  be  bound  to  lie  as  well  as 
to  kill  in  the  name  of  God  and  His  holy  prophet. 

The  secret  polity  which  I  have  sketched  gives,  evi- 
dently, enormous  power  to  some  one  man  within  the 
church ;  but  the  Mormon  constitution  does  not  very 
clearly  point  out  who  that  man  shall  be.  With  a  view 
to  the  possible  future  failure  of  leaders  of  great  per- 
sonal qualifications,  the  First  Presidency  consists  of 
three  members  with  equal  rank;  but  to  his  place  in  the 
Trinity,  Brigham  unites  the  office  of  Trustee  in  Trust, 
which  gives  him  the  control  of  the  funds  and  tithing, 
or  church  taxation. 

All  are  not  agreed  as  to  what  should  be  Brigham's 
place  in  Utah.  Stenhouse  said  one  day :  "  I  am  one  of 
those  who  think  that  our  President  should  do  every- 
thing. He  has  made  this  church  and  this  country,  and 
should  have  his  way  in  all  things;  saying  so  gets  me 
into  trouble  with  some."  The  writer  of  a  report  of 
Brigham's  tour  which  appeared  in  the  Salt  Lake  Tele- 


MORMONDOM.  127 

graph  the  day  we  reached  the  city,  used  the  words : 
"  God  never  spoke  through  man  more  clearly  than 
through  President  Young." 

One  day,  when  Stenhouse  was  speaking  of  the  moral- 
ity of  the  Mormon  people,  he  said :  "  Our  penalty  for 
adultery  is  death."  Remembering  the  Danites,  we 
were  down  on  him  at  once :  "  Do  you  inflict  it  ?"  "  No ; 
but — well,  not  practically;  but  really  it  is  so.  A  man 
who  commits  adultery  withers  away  and  perishes. 
A  man  sent  away  from  his  wives  upon  a  mission  that 
may  last  for  years,  if  he  lives  not  purely — if,  when  he 
returns,  he  cannot  meet  the  eye  of  Brigham,  better  for  him 
to  be  at  once  in  hell.  He  withers." 

Brigham  himself  has  spoken  in  strong  words  of  his 
own  power  over  the  Mormon  people:  "Let  the  talking 
folk  at  Washington  say,  if  they  please,  that  I  am  no 
longer  Governor  of  Utah.  I  am,  and  will  be  Governor, 
until  God  Almighty  says,  <  Brigham,  you  need  not  be 
Governor  any  more.' ': 

Brigham's  head  is  that  of  a  man  who  nowhere  could 
be  second. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

MORMONDOM. 

WE  had  been  presented  at  court,  and  favorably  re- 
ceived ;  asked  to  call  again ;  admitted  to  State  secrets 
of  the  presidency.  From  this  moment  our  position  in 
the  city  was  secured.  Mormon  seats  in  the  theater 
were  placed  at  our  disposal;  the  director  of  immigra- 
tion, the  presiding  bishop,  Colonel  Hunter — a  grim, 


128  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

weather-beaten  Indian  fighter — and  his  coadjutors, 
carried  us  off'  to  see  the  reception  of  the  bull-train  at 
the  Elephant  Corral;  we  were  offered  a  team  to  take 
us  to  the  Lake,  which  we  refused  only  because  we  had 
already  accepted  the  loan  of  one  from  a  Gentile  mer- 
chant; presents  of  peaches,  and  invitations  to  lunch, 
dinner,  and  supper,  came  pouring  in  upon  us  from  all 
sides.  In  a  single  morning  we  were  visited  by  four  of 
the  apostles  and  nine  other  leading  members  of  the 
church.  Ecclesiastical  dignitaries  sat  upon  our  single 
chair  and  wash-hand-stand ;  and  one  bed  groaned  under 
the  weight  of  George  A.  Smith,  "church  historian," 
while  the  other  bore  .zEsop's  load — the  peaches  he  had 
brought.  These  growers  of  fruit  from  standard  trees 
think  but  small  things  of  our  English  wall-fruit,  "  baked 
on  one  side  and  frozen  on  the  other,"  as  they  say.  There 
is  a  mellowness  about  the  Mormon  peaches  that  would 
drive  our  gardeners  to  despair. 

One  of  our  callers  was  Captain  Hooper,  the  Utah 
delegate  to  Congress.  He  is  an  adept  at  the  Western 
plan  of  getting  out  of  a  fix  by  telling  you  a  story. 
When  we  laughingly  alluded  to  his  lack  of  wives,  and 
the  absurdity  of  a  monogamist  representing  Utah,  he 
said  that  the  people  at  Washington  all  believed  that 
Utah  had  sent  them  a  polygamist^.  There  is  a  rule 
that  no  one  with  the  entry  shall  take  more  than  one 
lady  to  the  White  House  receptions.  A  member  of 
Congress  was  urged  by  three  ladies  to  take  them  with 
him.  He,  as  men  do,  said,  "The  thing  is  impossible" 
— and  did  it.  Presenting  himself  with  the  bevy  at 
the  door,  the  usher  stopped  him:  " Can't  pass;  only 
one  friend  admitted  with  each  member."  "  Suppose, 
sir,  that  I'm  the  delegate  from  Utah  Territory?"  said 
the  Congressman.  "Oh,  pass  in,  sir — pass  in,"  was 
the  instant  answer  of  the  usher.  The  story  reminds 


MOEMONDOM.  129 

me  of  poor  Browne's  "family"  ticket  to  his  lecture  at 
Salt  Lake  City:  "Admit  the  bearer  and  one  wife." 
Hooper  is  said  to  be  under  pressure  at  this  moment  on 
the  question  of  polygamy,  for  he  is  a  favorite  with  the 
prophet,  who  cannot,  however,  with  consistency  pro- 
mote him  to  office  in  the  church  on  account  of  a  saying 
of  his  own:  "A  man  with  one  wife  is  of  less  account 
before  God  than  a  man  with  no  wives  at  all." 

Our  best  opportunity  of  judging  of  the  Mormon 
ladies  was  at  the  theater,  which  we  attended  regularly, 
sitting  now  in  Elder  Stenhouse's  "  family"  seats,  now 
with  General  Wells.  Here  we  saw  all  the  wives  of  the 
leading  churchmen  of  the  city ;  in  their  houses,  we 
saw  only  those  they  chose  to  show  us:  in  no  case  but 
that  of  the  Clawson  family  did  we  meet  in  society  all 
the  wives.  We  noticed  at  once  that  the  leading  ladies 
were  all  alike — full  of  taste,  full  of  sense,  but  full,  at 
the  same  time,  of  a  kind  of  unconscious  melancholy. 
Everywhere,  as  you  looked  round  the  house,  you  met 
the  sad  eye  which  I  had  seen  but  once  before — among 
the  Shakers  at  New  Lebanon.  The  women  here,  know- 
ing no  other  state,  seem  to  think  themselves  as  happy 
as  the  day  is  long:  their  eye  alone  is  there  to  show  the 
Gentile  that  they  are,  if  the  expression  may  be  allowed, 
unhappy  without  knowing  it.  That  these  Mormon 
women  love  their .  religion  and  reverence  its  priests  is 
but  a  consequence  of  its  being  "their  religion" — the 
system  in  the  midst  of  which  they  have  been  brought 
up.  Which  of  us  is  there  who  does  not  set  up  some 
idol  in  his  heart  round  which  he  weaves  all  that  he  has 
of  poetry  and  devotion  in  his  character?  Art,  hero-wor- 
ship, patriotism  are  forms  of  this  great  tendency.  That 
the  Mormon  girls,  who  are  educated  as  highly  as  those 
of  any  country  in  the  world — who,  like  all  American 
girls,  are  allowed  to  wander  where  they  please — who 


130  GEE ATE R    BRITAIN. 

are  certain  of  protection  in  any  of  the  fifty  Gentile 
houses  in  the  city,  and  absolutely  safe  in  Camp  Doug- 
las at  the  distance  of  two  miles  from  the  city-wall 
— all  consent  deliberately  to  enter  on  polygamy — shows 
clearly  enough  that  they  can,  as  a  rule,  have  no  dislike 
to  it  beyond  such  a  feeling  as  public  opinion  will 
speedily  overcome. 

Discussion  of  the  institution  of  plural  marriage  in 
Salt  Lake  City  is  fruitless;  all  that  can  be  done  is  to 
observe.  In  assaulting  the  Mormon  citadel,  you  strike 
against  the  air.  "Polygamy  degrades  the  women," 
you  begin.  " Morally  or  socially?"  says  the  Mormon. 
"Socially."  "Granted,"  is  the  reply,  "and  that  is  a 
most  desirable  consummation.  By  socially  lowering, 
it  morally  raises  the  woman.  It  makes  her  a  servant, 
but  it  makes  her  pure  and  good." 

It  is  always  well  to  remember  that  if  we  have  one 
argument  against  polygamy  which  from  our  Gentile 
point  of  view  is  unanswerable,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
we  should  rack  our  brains  for  others.  All  our  modern 
experience  is  favorable  to  ranking  woman  as  man's 
equal ;  polygamy  assumes  that  she  shall  be  his  servant 
— loving,  faithful,  cheerful,  willing,  but  still  a  servant. 

The  opposite  poles  upon  the  women  question  are 
Utah  polygamy  and  Kansas  female  suffrage. 


WESTERN  EDITORS.  131 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

WESTERN  EDITORS. 

THE  attack  upon  Mormondom  has  been  system- 
atized, and  is  conducted  with  military  skill,  by  trench 
and  parallel.  The  New  England  papers  having  called 
for  "facts"  whereon  to  base  their  homilies,  General 
Connor,  of  Fenian  fame,  set  up  the  Union  Vedette  in 
Salt  Lake  City,  and  publishes  on  Saturdays  a  sheet 
expressly  intended  for  Eastern  reading.  The  mantle 
of  the  Sangamo  Journal  has  fallen  on  the  Vedette,  and 
John  C.  Bennett  is  effaced  by  Connor.  From  this 
source  it  is  that  come  the  whole  of  the  paragraphs 
against  Brigham  and  all  Mormondom  which  fill  the 
Eastern  papers,  and  find  their  way  to  London.  The 
editor  has  to  fill  his  paper  with  peppery  leaders,  well- 
spiced  telegrams,  stinging  "facts."  Every  week  there 
must  be  something  that  can  be  used  and  quoted  against 
Brigham.  The  Eastern  remarks  upon  quotations  in 
turn  are  quoted  at  Salt  Lake.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, even  telegrams  can  be  made  to  take  a  flavor. 
In  to-day's  Vedette  we  have  one  from  St.  Joseph,  de- 
scribing how  above  one  thousand  "of  these  dirty, 
filthy  dupes  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  iniquity"  are  now 
squatting  round  the  packet  depot,  awaiting  transport. 
Another  from  Chicago  tells  us  that  the  seven  thousand 
European  Mormons  who  have  this  year  passed  up  the 
Missouri  River  "are  of  the  lowest  and  most  ignorant 
classes."  The  leader  is  directed  against  Mormons  in 
general,  and  Stenhouse  in  particular,  as  editor  of  one  of 


132  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

the  Mormon  papers,  and  ex-postmaster  of  the  Territory. 
He  has  already  had  cause  to  fear  the  Vedette,  as  it  was 
through  the  exertions  of  its  editor  that  he  lost  his 
office.  This  matter  is  referred  to  in  the  leader  of  to- 
day:  ""When  we  found  our  letters  scattered  about  the 
streets  in  fragments,  we  succeeded  in  getting  an  honest 
postmaster  appointed  in  place  of  the  editor  of  the  Tele- 
graph— an  organ  where  even  carrots,  pumpkins,  and 
potatoes  are  current  funds  —  directed  by  a  clique  of 
foreign  writers,  who  can  hardly  speak  our  language, 
and  who  never  drew  a  loyal  breath  since  they  came  to 
Utah."  The  Mormon  tax  frauds,  and  the  Mormon 
police,  likewise  come  in  for  their  share  of  abuse,  and 
the  writer  concludes  with  a  pathetic  plea  against  arrest 
"lor  quietly  indulging  in  a  glass  of  wine  in  a  private 
room  with  a  friend." 

Attacks  such  as  these  make  one  understand  the 
suspiciousness  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  and  the  slow- 
ness of  Stenhouse  and  his  friends  to  take  a  joke  if  it 
concerns  the  church.  Poor  Artemus  Ward  once  wrote 
to  Stenhouse,  "If  you  can't  take  a  joke,  you'll  be 
darned,  and  you  oughter ;"  but  the  jest  at  which  he 
can  laugh  has  wrought  no  cure.  Heber  Kimball  said 

to  me  one  day:  "They're  all  alike.     There  was 

came  here  to  write  a  book,  and  we  thought  better  of 
him  than  of  most.  I  showed  him  more  kindness  than 
I  ever  showed  a  man  before  or  since,  and  then  he 
called  me  a  'hoary  reprobate.'  I  would  advise  him 
not  to  pass  this  way  next  time." 

The  suspicion  often  takes  odd  shapes.  One  Sunday 
morning,  at  the  tabernacle,  I  remarked  that  the 
Prophet's  daughter,  Zina,  had  on  the  same  dress  as 
she  had  worn  the  evening  before  at  the  theater,  in 
playing  "  Mrs.  Musket"  in  the  farce  of  "  My  Husband's 
Ghost."  It  was  a  black  silk  gown,  with  a  vandyke 


WESTERN  EDITORS.  133 

flounce  of  white,  impossible  to  mistake.  I  pointed 
it  out  in  joke  to  a  Mormon  friend,  when  he  denied  my 
assertion  in  the  most  emphatic  way,  although  he  could 
not  have  known  for  certain  that  I  was  wrong,  as  he 
sat  next  to  me  in  the  theater  during  the  whole  play. 

The  Mormons  will  talk  freely  of  their  own  sus- 
piciousness.  They  say  that  the  coldness  with  which 
travelers  are  usually  received  at  Salt  Lake  City  is 
the  consequence  of  years  of  total  misrepresentation. 
They  forget  that  they  are  arguing  in  a  circle,  and  that 
this  misrepresentation  is  itself  sometimes  the  result  of 
their  reserve. 

The  news  and  advertisements  are  even  more 
amusing  than  the  leaders  in  the  Vedette.  A  paragraph 
tells  us,  for  instance,  that  "Mrs.  Martha  Stewart  and 
Mrs.  Robertson,  of  San  Antonio,  lately  had  an  im- 
promptu fight  with  revolvers;  Mrs.  Stewart  was  badly 
winged."  Nor  is  this  the  only  reference  in  the  paper 
to  shooting  by  ladies,  as  another  paragraph  tells  us 
how  a  young  girl,  frightened  by  a  sham  ghost,  drew 
on  the  would-be  apparition,  and  with  six  barrels  shot 
him  twice  through  the  head,  and  four  times  "in  the 
region  of  the  heart."  A  quotation  from  the  Owyhee 
Avalanche,  speaking  of  gambling  hells,  tells  us  that 
"one  hurdy  shebang"  in  Silver  City  shipped  8000 
dollars  as  the  net  proceeds  of  its  July  business.  "  These 
leeches  corral  more  clear  cash  than  most  quartz  mills," 
remonstrates  the  editor.  "Corral"  is  the  Mexican 
cattle  inclosure ;  the  yard  where  the  team  mules  are 
ranched;  the  kraal  of  Cape  Colony,  which,  on  the 
plains  and  the  plateau,  serves  as  a  fort  for  men  as  well 
as  a  fold  for  oxen,  and  resembles  the  serai  of  the  East. 
The  word  "to  corral"  means  to  shut  into  one  of  these 
pens;  and  thence  "to  pouch,"  "to  pocket,"  "to  bag," 
to  get  well  into  hand. 

12 


134  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

The  advertisements  are  in  keeping  with  the  news. 
"  Everything,  from  a  salamander  safe  to  a  Limerick 
fish-hook,"  is  offered  by  one  firm.  "Fifty-three  and 
a  half  and  three  and  three-quarter  thimble-skein. 
Schuttler  wagons,"  is  offered  by  another.  An  ad- 
vertiser bids  us  "Spike  the  Guns  of  Humbug!  and 
Beware  of  Deleterious  Dyes !  Refuse  to  have  your 
Heads  Baptized  with  Liquid  Fire!"  Another  says, 
"If  you  want  a  paper  free  from  entanglements  of 
cliques,  and  antagonistic  to  the  corrupting  evils  of 
factionism,  subscribe  to  the  Montana  Radiator."  No- 
thing beats  the  following:  "Butcher's  dead-shot  for 
bed-bugs!  Curls  them  up  as  fire  does  a  leaf !  Try 
it,  and  sleep  in  peace !  Sold  by  all  live  druggists." 

If  we  turn  to  the  other  Salt  Lake  papers,  the  Tele- 
graph, an  independent  Mormon  paper,  and  the  Deseret 
Nevis,  the  official  journal  of  the  church,  we  find  a  con- 
trast to  the  trash  of  the  Vedette.  Brigham's  paper, 
clearly  printed  and  of  a  pleasant  size,  is  filled  with  the 
best  and  latest  news  from  the  outlying  portions  of  the 
Territory,  and  from  Europe.  The  motto  on  its  head  is 
a  simple  one — "  Truth  and  Liberty;"  and  twenty-eight 
columns  of  solid  news  are  given  us.  Among  the  items 
is  an  account  of  a  fight  upon  the  Smoky  Hill  route, 
which  occurred  on  the  day  we  reached  this  city,  and  in 
which  two  teamsters — George  Hill  and  Luke  West — 
were  killed  by  the  Kiowas  and  Cheyenues.  A  loyal 
Union  article  from  the  pen  of  Albert  Carrington,  the 
editor,  is  followed  by  one  upon  the  natural  advantages 
of  Utah,  in  which  the  writer  complains  that  the  very 
men  who  ridiculed  the  Mormons  for  settling  in  a  desert 
are  now  declaiming  against  their  being  allowed  to  squat 
upon  one  of  the  "most  fertile  locations  in  the*  United 
States."  The  paper  asserts  that  Mormon  success  is 
secured  only  by  Mormon  industry,  and  that  as  a  merely 


WES  TEEN  EDITORS.  135 

commercial  speculation,  apart  from  the  religious  im- 
pulse, the  cultivation  of  Utah  would  not  pay :  "  Utah 
is  no  place  for  the  loafer  or  the  lazy  man."  An  official 
report,  like  the  Court  Circular  of  England,  is  headed, 
"  President  Brigham  Young's  trip  North,"  and  is 
signed  by  G.  D.  Watt,  "Keporter"  to  the  church. 
The  Old  Testament  is  not  spared.  "  From  what  we 
saw  of  the  timbered  mountains,"  writes  one  reporter, 
"we  had  no  despondency  of  Israel  ever  failing  for 
material  to  build  up,  beautify,  and  adorn  pleasant  hab- 
itations in  that  part  of  Zion."  A  theatrical  criticism  is 
not  wanting,  and  the  church  actors  come  in  for  "  praise 
all  round."  In  another  part  of  the  paper  are  telegraphic 
reports  from  the  captains  of  the  seven  immigrant  trains 
not  yet  come  in,  giving  their  position,  and  details  of 
the  number  of  days'  march  for  which  they  have  pro- 
visions still  in  hand.  One  reports  "  thirty-eight  head 
of  cattle  stolen  ;"  another,  "  a  good  deal  of  mountain 
fever;"  but,  on  the  whole,  the  telegrams  look  well. 
The  editor,  speaking  of  the  two  English  visitors  now 
in  the  city,  says :  "  We  greet  them  to  our  mountain 
habitation,  and  bid  them  welcome  to  our  orchard ;  and 
that's  considerable  for  an  editor,  especially  if  he  has 
plural  responsibilities  to  look  after."  Bishop  Harring- 
ton reports  from  American  Fork  that  everybody  is 
thriving  there,  and  "  doing  as  the  Mormon  creed 
directs — minding  their  own  business."  "  That's  good, 
bishop,"  says  the  editor.  The  "Passenger  List  of 
the  2d  Ox-train,  Captain  J.'D.  Holladay,"  is  given  at 
length ;  about  half  the  immigrants  come  with  wife  and 
family,  very  many  with  five  or  six  children.  From 
Liverpool,  the  chief  office  for  Europe,  comes  a  gazette 
of  "Releases  and  Appointments,"  signed  "Brigham 
Young,  Jun.,  President  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Latter-day  Saints  in  the  British  Isles  and  Adjacent 


136  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

Countries,"  accompanied  by  a  dispatch,  in  which  the 
''President  for  England"  gives  details  of  his  visits  to 
the  Saints  in  Norway,  and  of  his  conversations  with 
the  United  States  minister  at  St.  Petersburg. 

The  Telegraph,  like  its  editor,  is  practical,  and  does 
not  deal  in  extract.  All  the  sheet,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  columns,  is  taken  up  with  business  advertise- 
ments; but  these  are  not  the  least  amusing  part  of  the 
paper.  A  gigantic  figure  of  a  man  in  high  boots  and 
felt  hat,  standing  on  a  ladder  and  pasting  up  Messrs. 
Eldredge  and  Clawson's  dry-goods  advertisement,  occu- 
pies nearly  half  the  back  page.  Mr.  Birch  informs 
"  parties  hauling  wheat  from  San  Pete  County"  that 
his  mill  at  Fort  Birch  "is  now  running,  and  is  pro- 
tected by  a  stone-wall  fortification,  and  is  situate  at  the 
mouth  of  Salt  Canyon,  just  above  Nephi  City,  Juab 
County,  on  the  direct  road  to  Pahranagat."  A  view  of 
the  fort,  with  posterns,  parapets,  embrasures,  and  a 
giant  flag,  heads  the  advertisement.  The  cuts  are  not 
always  so  cheerful :  one  far-western  paper  fills  three- 
quarters  of  its  front  page  with  an  engraving  of  a  coffin. 
The  editorial  columns  contain  calls  to  the  "  brethren 
with  teams  "  to  aid  the  immigrants,  an  account  of  a 
"rather  mixed  case"  of  "double  divorce"  (Gentile), 
and  of  a  prosecution  of  a  man  "  for  violation  of  the 
seventh  commandment."  A  Mormon  police  report  is 
headed,  "One  drunk  at  the  calaboose."  Defending 
himself  against  charges  of  "directing  bishops"  and 
"steadying  the  ark,"  the  editor  calls  on  the  bishops 
to  shorten  their  sermons :  "  we  may  get  a  crack  for 
this,  but  we  can't  help  it ;  we  like  variety,  life,  and 
short  meetings."  In  a  paragraph  about  his  visitors, 
our  friend,  the  editor  of  the  Telegraph,  said,  a  day  or 
two  after  our  arrival  in  the  city:  "If  a  stranger  can 
escape  the  strychnine  clique  for  three  days  after  arri- 


WESTERN  EDITORS.  137 

val,  he  is  forever  afterward  safe.  Generally  the  first 
twenty-four  hours  are  sufficient  to  prostrate  even  the 
very  robust."  In  a  few  words  of  regret  at  a  change 
in  the  Denver  newspaper  staff,  our  editor  says :  "  How- 
ever, a  couple  of  sentences  indicate  that  George  has 
no  intention  of  abandoning  the  tripod.  That's  right : 
keep  at  it,  my  boy;  misery  likes  company." 

The  day  after  we  reached  Denver,  the  Gazette,  com- 
menting on  this  same  u  George,"  said:  "  Captain  West 
has  left  the  Rocky  Mountains  News  office.  We  are  not 
surprised,  as  we  could  never  see  how  any  respectable, 
decent  gentleman  like  George  could  get  along  with 
Governor  Evans's  paid  hireling  and  whelp  who  edits 
that  delectable  sheet. "  Of  the  two  papers  which  exist 
in  every  town  in  the  Union,  each  is  always  at  work  at- 
tempting to  "  use  up  "  the  other.  I  have  seen  the  Dem- 
ocratic print  of  Chicago  call  its  Republican  opponent 
"  a  radical,  disunion,  disreputable,  bankrupt,  emascu- 
lated evening  newspaper  concern  of  this  city" — a 
string  of  terms  by  the  side  of  which  even  Western 
utterances  pale. 

A  paragraph  headed  "The  Millennium"  tells  us  that 
the  editors  of  the  Telegraph  and  Deseret News  were  seen 
yesterday  afternoon  walking  together  toward  the  Twen- 
tieth Ward.  Another  paragraph  records  the  ill  suc- 
cess of  an  expedition  against  Indians  who  had  been 
"  raiding"  down  in  "  Dixie,"  or  South  Utah.  A  general 
order,  signed  "Lieut-General  Daniel  H.  Wells,"  and 
dated  "headquarters  Nauvoo  Legion,"  directs  the  as- 
sembly, for  a  three  days'  "big  drill,"  of  the  forces  of 
the  various  military -districts  of  the  Territory.  The 
name  of  "Territorial  Militia,"  under  which  alone  the 
United  States  can  permit  the  existence  of  the  legion, 
is  carefully  omitted.  This  is  not  the  only  warlike  ad- 
vertisement in  the  paper:  fourteen  cases  of  Ballard 

12* 


138  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

rifles  are  offered  in  exchange  for  cattle;  and  other 
firms  offer  tents  and  side-arms  to  their  friends.  Amuse- 
ments are  not  forgotten :  a  cricket  match  between  two 
Mormon  settlements  in  Cache  County  is  recorded: 
"  Wellsville  whipping  Brigham  City  with  six  wickets 
to  go  down  ;"  and  is  followed  by  an  article  in  which 
the  First  President  may  have  had  a  hand,  pointing  out 
that  the  Salt  Lake*  Theater  is  going  to  be  the  greatest 
of  theaters,  and  that  the  favor  of  its  audience  is  a  pass- 
port beyond  Wallack's,  and  equal  to  Drury  Lane  or  the 
Haymarket.  In  sharp  contrast  to  these  signs  of  pres- 
ent prosperity,  the  First  Presidency  announce  the  an- 
nual gathering  of  the  surviving  members  of  Zion's 
camp,  the  association  of  the  first  immigrant  band. 

There  is  about  the  Mormon  papers  much  that  tells 
of  long  settlement  and  prosperity.  When  I  showed 
Stenhouse  the  Denver  G-azette  of  our  second  day  in  that 
town,  he  said:  "Well,  Telegraph's  better  than  that!" 
The  Denver  sheet  is  a  literary  curiosity  of  the  first 
order.  Printed  on  chocolate-colored  paper,  in  ink  of 
a  not  much  darker  hue,  it  is  in  parts  illegible — to  the 
reader's  regret,  for  what  we  were  able  to  make  out 
was  good  enough  to  make  us  wish  for  more. 

The  difference  between  the  Mormon  and  Gentile 
papers  is  strongly  marked  in  the  advertisements.  The 
Denver  Gazette  is  filled  with  puffs  of  quacks  and 
whisky  shops.  In  the  column  headed  "  Business 
Cards,"  Dr.  Ermerins  announces  that  he  may  be  con- 
sulted by  his  patients  in  the  "French,  German,  and 
English"  tongues.  Lower  down  we  have  the  card  of 
"Dr.  Treat,  Eclectic  Physician  and  Surgeon,"  which 
is  preceded  by  an  advertisement  of  "  sulkies  made  to 
order,"  and  followed  by  a  leaded  heading,  "Know  thy 
Destiny ;  Madame  Thornton,  the  English  Astrologist 
and  Psychometrician,  has  located  herself  at  Hudson, 


WES  TEEN  EDI  TOES.  139 

New  York ;  by  the  aid  of  an  instrument  of  intense 
power,  known  as  the  Psychomotrope,  she  guarantees 
to  produce  a  lifelike  picture  of  the  future  husband  or 
wife  of  the  applicant."  There  is  a  strange  turning  to- 
ward the  supernatural  among  this  people.  Astrology 
is  openly  professed  as  a  science  throughout  the  United 
States ;  the  success  of  spiritualism  is  amazing.  The 
most  sensible  men  are  not  exempt  from  the  weakness : 
the  dupes  of  the  astrologers  are  not  the  uneducated 
Irish;  they  are  the  strong-minded,  half- educated  West- 
ern men,  shrewd^and  keen  in  trade,  brave  in  war,  ma- 
terial and  cold  in  faith,  it  would  be  supposed,  but  cred- 
ulous to  folly,  as  we  know,  when  personal  revelation, 
the  supernaturalism  of  the  present  day,  is  set  before 
them  in  the  crudest  and  least  attractive  forms.  A  little 
lower,  "  Charley  Eyser"  and  "  Gus  Fogus"  advertise 
their  bars.  The  latter  announces  "  Lager  Beer  at  only 
10  cents,"  in  a  "cool  retreat,"  "fitted  up  with  green- 
growing  trees."  A  returned  warrior  heads  his  an- 
nouncement, in  huge  capitals,  "Back  Home  Again, 
An  Old  Hand  at  the  Bellows,  the  Soldier  Blacksmith  : 
— S.  M.  Logan."  In  a  country  where  weights  and 
measures  are  rather  a  matter  of  practice  than  of  law, 
Mr.  O'Connell  does  well  to  add  to  "Lager  beer  15 
cents,"  "  Glasses  hold  Two  Bushels."  John  Morris, 
of  the  "Little  Giant"  or  "  Theater  Saloon,"  asks  us  to 
"call  and  see  him  ;"  while  his  rivals  of  the  "Progres- 
sive Saloon"  offer  the  "finest  liquors  that  the  East  can 
command."  Morris  Sigi,  whose  "  lager  is  pronounced 
A  No.  1  by  all  who  have  used  it,"  bids  us  "  give  him  a 
fair  trial,  and  satisfy  ourselves  as  to  the  false  reports  in 
circulation."  Daniel  Marsh,  dealer  in  "breech-loading 
guns  and  revolvers,"  adds,  "  and  anything  that  may  be 
wanted,  from  a  cradle  to  a  coffin,  both  inclusive,  made 
to  order.  An  Indian  Lodge  on  view,  for  sale."  This 


140  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

is  the  man  at  whose  shop  scalps  hang  for  sale ;  but  he 
fails  to  name  it  in  his  advertisement;  the  Utes  brought 
them  in  too  late  for  insertion,  perhaps. 

Advertisements  of  freight-trains  now  starting  to  the 
East,  of  mail-coaches  to  Buckskin  Joe — advertisements 
slanting,  topsy-turvy,  and  sideways  turned — complete 
the  outer  sheet ;  but  some  of  them,  through  bad  ink, 
printer's  errors,  strange  English,  and  wilder  Latin,  are 
wholly  unintelligible.  It  is  hard  to  make  much  of  this, 
for  instance  :  "  Mr.  ^Esculapius,  no  offense,  I  hope,  as 
this  is  written  extempore  and  ipso  -facto.  But,  per- 
haps, I  ought  not  to  disregard  ex  unci  disce  omnes." 

In  an  editorial  on  the  English  visitors  then  in  Den- 
ver, the  chance  of  putting  into  their  mouths  a  puff  of 
the  Territory  of  Colorado  was  not  lost.  We  were  made 
to  "  appreciate  the  native  energy  and  wealth  of  industry 
necessary  in  building  up  such  a  Star  of  Empire  as  Col- 
orado." The  next  paragraph  is  communicated  from 
Conejos,  in  the  south  of  the  Territory,  and  says:  "  The 
election  has  now  passed  off,  and  I  am  confident  that 
we  can  beat  any  ward  in  Denver,  and  give  them  two 
in  the  game,  for  rascality  in  voting/'  Another  leader 
calls  on  the  people  of  Denver  to  remember  that  there 
are  two  men  in  the  calaboose  for  mule  stealing,  and 
that  the  last  man  locked  up  for  the  offense  was  allowed 
to  escape :  some  cottonwood-trees  still  exist,  it  believes. 
In  former  times,  there  was  for  the  lynching  here  hinted 
at  a  reason  which  no  longer  exists:  a  man  shut  up  in 
jail  built  of  adobe,  or  sun-dried  brick,  could  scratch 
his  way  through  the  crumbling  wall  in  two  days,  so 
the  citizens  generally  hanged  him  in  one.  ISTow  that 
the  jails  are  in  brick  and  stone,  the  job  might  safely 
be  left  to  the  sheriff;  but  the  people  of  Denver  seem  to 
trust  themselves  better  even  than  they  do  their  dele- 
gate, Bob  Wilson. 


WESTERN  EDITORS.  141 

A  year  or  two  ago,  the  jails  were  so  crazy  that  Col- 
oradan  criminals,  when  given  their  choice  whether  they 
would  be  hanged  in  a  week,  or  "  as  soon  after  breakfast 
to-morrow  as  shall  be  convenient  to  the  sheriff  and 
agreeable,  Mr.  Prisoner,  to  you,"  as  the  Texan  formula 
runs,  used  to  elect  for  the  quick  delivery,  on  the  ground 
that  otherwise  they  would  catch  their  deaths  of  cold — 
at  least  so  the  Denver  story  runs.  They  have,  how- 
ever, a  method  of  getting  the  jails  inspected  here  which 
might  be  found  useful  at  home ;  it  consists  in  the  simple 
plan  of  giving  the  governor  of  a  jail  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  practical  working  of  the  system  by  locking 
him  up  inside  for  awhile. 

These  far-western  papers  are  written  or  compiled 
under  difficulties  almost  overwhelming.  Mr.  Fred- 
erick J.  Stanton,  at  Denver,  told  me  that  often  he  had 
been  forced  to  "  set  up"  and  print  as  well  as  "edit" 
the  paper  which  he  owns.  Type  is  not  always  to  be 
found.  In  its  early  days,  the  Alta  Californian  once  ap- 
peared with  a  paragraph  which  ran:  "I  have  no  YY  in 
my  type,  as  there  is  none  in  the  Spanish  alphabet.  I 
have  sent  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  for  this  letter;  in 
the  mean  time  we  must  use  two  Y's." 

Till  I  had  seen  the  editors'  rooms  in  Denver,  Austin, 
and  Salt  Lake  City,  I  had  no  conception  of  the  point 
to  which  discomfort  could  be  carried.  For  all  these 
hardships,  payment  is  small  and  slow.  It  consists 
often  of  little  but  the  satisfaction  which  it  is  to  the 
editor's  vanity  to  be  "liquored"  by  the  best  man  of 
the  place,  treated  to  an  occasional  chat  with  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Territory,  to  a  chair  in  the  overland  mail 
office  whenever  he  walks  in,  to  the  hand  of  the  hotel 
proprietor  whenever  he  comes  near  the  bar,  and  to  a 
pistol-shot  once  or  twice  in  a  month. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Vedette  does  the 


142  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Mormons  no  harm;  the  perpetual  reiteration  in  the 
Eastern  and  English  papers  of  three  sets  of  stories 
alone  would  suffice  to  break  down  a  flourishing  power. 
The  three  lines  that  are  invariably  taken  as  founda- 
tions for  their  stories  are  these — that  the  Mormon 
women  are  wretched,  and  would  fain  get  away,  but 
are  checked  by  the  Danites;  that  the  Mormons  are 
ready  to  fight  with  the  Federal  troops  with  the  hope 
of  success;  that  robbery  of  the  people  by  the  apostles 
and  elders  is  at  the  bottom  of  Mormonism — or,  as  the 
Vedette  puts  it,  "on  tithing  and  loaning  hang  all  the 
law  and  the  profits." 

If  the  mere  fact  of  the  existence  of  the  Vedette  ef- 
fectually refutes  the  stories  of  the  acts  of  the  Danites 
in  these  modern  days,  and  therefore  disposes  of  the 
first  set  of  stories,  the  third  is  equally  answered  by  a 
glance  at  its  pages.  Columns  of  paragraphs,  sheets  of 
advertisements,  testify  to  the  foundation  by  industry, 
in  the  most  frightful  desert  on  earth,  of  an  agri- 
cultural community  which  California  herself  cannot 
match.  The  Mormons  may  well  call  their  country 
"Deseret"  —  "land  of  the  bee."  The  process  of 
fertilization  goes  on  day  by  day.  Six  or  seven  years 
ago,  Southern  Utah  was  a  desert  bare  as  Salt  Bush 
Plains.  Irrigation  from  the  fresh-water  lake  was 
carried  out  under  episcopal  direction,  and  the  result 
is  the  growth  of  fifty  kinds  of  grapes  alone.  Cotton- 
mills  and  vineyards  are  springing  up  on  every  side, 
and  "Dixie"  begins  to  look  down  on  its  parent,  the 
Salt  Lake  Valley.  Irrigation  from  the  mountain  rills 
has  done  this  miracle,  we  say,  though  the  Saints  un- 
doubtedly believe  that  God's  hand  is  in  it,  helping 
miraculously  "His  peculiar  people." 

In  face  of  Mormon  prosperity,  it  is  worthy  of  notice 
that  Utah  was  settled  on  the  Wakefieldian  system, 


WESTERN  EDITORS.  143 

though  Brighara  knows  nothing  of  Wakefield.  Town 
population  and  country  population  grew  up  side  by 
side  in  every  valley,  and  the  plow  was  not  allowed 
to  gain  on  the  machine-saw  and  the  shuttle. 

It  is  not  only  in  water  and  verdure  that  Utah  is 
naturally  poor.  On  the  mining-map  of  the  States, 
the  countries  that  lie  around  Utah — Nevada,  Arizona, 
Colorado,  Montana — are  one  blaze  of  yellow,  and  blue, 
and  red,  colored  from  end  to  end  with  the  tints  that 
are  used  to  denote  the  existence  of  precious  metals. 
Utah  is  blank  at  present — blank,  the  Mormons  say, 
by  nature ;  Gentiles  say,  merely  through  the  absence 
of  survey;  and  they  do  their  best  to  circumvent 
mother  nature.  Every  fall  the  "strychnine"  party 
raise  the  cry  of  gold  discoveries  in  Utah,  in  the  hope 
of  bringing  a  rush  of  miners  down  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
too  late  for  them  to  get  away  again  before  the  snows 
begin.  The  presence  of  some  thousands  of  broad- 
brimmed  rowdies  in  Salt  Lake  City,  for  a  winter, 
would  be  the  death  of  Mormonism,  they  believe. 
Within  the  last  few  days,  I  am  told  that  prospecting 
parties  have  found  "pay  dirt"  in  City  Canyon,  which, 
however,  they  had  first  themselves  carefully  "salted" 
with  gold  dust.  There  is  coal  at  the  settlement  at 
which  we  breakfasted  on  our  way  from  Weber  River 
to  Salt  Lake;  and  Stenhouse  tells  us  that  the  only 
difference  between  the  Utah  coal  and  that  of  Wales 
is,  that  the  latter  will  burn,  and  the  former  won't! 

Poor  as  Utah  is  by  nature,  clear  though  it  be  that 
whatever  value  the  soil  now  possesses,  represents  only 
the  loving  labor  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  Saints,  it 
is  doubtful  whether  they  are  to  continue  to  possess 
it,  even  though  the  remaining  string  of  Vedette-bom 
stories  assert  that  Brigham  "threatens  hell"  to  the 
Gentiles  who  would  expel  him. 


144  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

The  constant,  teasing,  wasp-like  pertinacity  of  the 
Vedette  has  done  some  harm  to  liberty  of  thought 
throughout  the  world. 


CHAPTEE    XVII. 

UTAH. 

"  WHEN  you  are  driven  hence,  where  shall  you  go?" 
"We  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow;  the  Lord 
will  guide  his  people,"  was  my  rebuke  from  Elder 
Stenhouse,  delivered  in  the  half-solemn,  half-laughing 
manner  characteristic  of  the  Saints.  "  You  say  mira- 
cles are  passed  and  gone,"  he  went  on;  "but  if  God 
has  ever  interfered  to  protect  a  church,  he  has  inter- 
posed on  our  behalf.  In  1857,  when  the  whole  army 
of  the  United  States  was  let  slip  at  us  under  Albert  S. 
Johnson,  we  were  given  strength  to  turn  them  aside, 
and  defeat  them  without  a  blow.  The  Lord  permitted 
us  to  dictate  our  own  terms  of  peace.  Again,  when 
the  locusts  came  in  such  swarms  as  to  blacken  the 
whole  valley,  and  fill  the  air  with  a  living  fog,  God 
sent  millions  of  strange  new  gulls,  and  these  devoured 
the  locusts,  and  saved  us  from  destruction.  The  Lord 
will  guide  his  people." 

Often  as  I  discussed  the  future  of  Utah  and  the 
church  with  Mormons,  I  could  never  get  from  them 
any  answer  but  this ;  they  would  never  even  express 
a  belief,  as  will  many  Western  Gentiles,  that  no  at- 
tempt will  be  made  to  expel  them  from  the  country 
they  now  hold.  They  cannot  help  seeing  how  imme- 


UTAH.  145 

diate  is  the  danger :  from  the  American  press  there 
comes  a  cry,  "  Let  us  have  this  polygamy  put  down ; 
its  existence  is  a  disgrace  to  England  from  which  it 
springs,  a  shame  to  America  in  which  it  dwells,  to  the 
Federal  government  whose  laws  it  outrages  and  deti.es. 
How  long  will  you  continue  to  tolerate  this  retrogres- 
sion from  Christianity,  this  insult  to  civilization  ?" 

With  the  New  Englanders,  the  question  is  political 
as  well  as  theological,  personal  as  well  as  political — 
political,  mainly  because  there  is  a  great  likeness  be- 
tween Mormon  expressions  of  belief  in  the  divine  origin 
of  polygamy  and  the  Southern  answers  to  the  Aboli- 
tionists: "Abraham  was  a  slaveowner,  and  father  of 
the  faithful;"  "David,  the  best-loved  of  God,  was 
a  polygamist" — "  show  us  a  biblical  prohibition  of 
slavery  ;"  "  show  us  a  denunciation  of  polygamy,  and 
we'll  believe  you."  It  is  this  similarity  of  the  defensive 
positions  of  Mormonism  and  slavery  which  has  led  to 
the  present  peril  of  the  Salt  Lake  Church :  the  New 
Englanders  look  on  the  Mormons,  not  only  as  heretics, 
but  as  friends  to  the  slaveowners ;  on  the  other  hand, 
if  you  hear  a  man  warmly  praise  the  Mormons,  you 
may  set  him  down  as  a  Southerner,  or  at  the  least  a 
Democrat. 

Another  reason  for  the  hostility  of  New  England  is, 
that  while  the  discredit  of  Mormonism  falls  upon 
America,  the  American  people  have  but  little  share  in 
its  existence  :  a  few  of  the  leaders  are  New  Englanders 
and  New  Yorkers,  but  of  the  rank  and  file,  not  one. 
In  every  ten  immigrants,  the  missionaries  count  upon 
finding  that  four  come  from  England,  two  from  Wales, 
one  from  the  Scotch  Lowlands,  one  from  Sweden,  one 
from  Switzerland,  and  one  from  Prussia:  from  Catholic 
countries,  none  ;  from  all  America,  none.  It  is  through 
this  purely  local  and  temporary  association  of  ideas 

13 


146  GEEATER   BRITAIN. 

that  we  see  the  strange  sight  of  a  party  of  tolerant, 
large-hearted  churchmen  eager  to  march  their  armies 
against  a  church. 

If  we  put  aside  for  a  moment  the  question  of  the 
moral  right  to  crush  Mormoriism  in  the  name  of  truth, 
we  find  that  it  is,  at  all  events,  easy  enough  to  do  it. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  finding  legal  excuses  for  action 
— no  danger  in  backing  Federal  legislation  with  mili- 
tary force.  The  legal  point  is  clear  enough — clear 
upon  a  double  issue.  Congress  can  legislate  for  the 
Territories  in  social  matters — has,  in  fact,  already  done 
so.  Polygamy  is  at  this  moment  punishable  in  Utah, 
but  the  law  is,  pending  the  completion  of  the  railroad, 
not  enforced.  Without  extraordinary  action,  its  en- 
forcement would  be  impossible,  for  Mormon  juries  will 
give  110  verdict  antagonistic  to  their  church  ;  but  it  is 
not  only  in  this  matter  that  the  Mormons  have  been 
offenders.  They  have  sinned  also  against  the  land 
laws  of  America.  The  church,  Brigham,  Kimball,  all 
are  landholders  on  a  scale  not  contemplated  by  the 
"Homestead"  laws — unless  to  be  forbidden;  doubly, 
therefore,  are  the  Mormons  at  the  mercy  of  the  Federal 
Congress.  There  is  a  loophole  open  in  the  matter  of 
polygamy — that  adopted  by  the  New  York  Commu- 
nists when  they  chose  each  a  woman  to  be  his  legal 
wife,  and  so  put  themselves  without  the  reach  of  law. 
This  method  of  escape,  I  have  been  assured  by  Mormon 
elders,  is  one  that  nothing  could  force  them  to  adopt. 
Rather  than  indirectly  destroy  their  church  by  any 
such  weak  compliance,  they  would  again  renounce 
their  homes,  and  make  their  painful  way  across  the 
wilderness  to  some  new  Deseret. 

It  is  not  likely  that  New  England  interference  will 
hinge  upon  plurality.  A  " difficulty"  can  easily  be 
made  to  arise  upon  the  land  question,  and  no  breach 


UTAH.  147 

of  the  principle  of  toleration  will,  on  the  surface  at 
least,  be  visible.  No  surveys  have  been  held  in  the 
Territory  since  1857,  no  lands  within  the  territorial 
limits  have  been  sold  by  the  Federal  land  office.  Not 
only  have  the  limitations  of  the  " Homestead"  and 
"  Pre-emption  "  laws  been  disregarded,  but  Salt  Lake 
City,  with  its  palace,  its  theater,  and  hotels,  is  built 
upon  the  public  lands  of  the  United  States.  On  the 
other  hand,  Mexican  titles  are  respected  in  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico;  and  as  Utah  was  Mexican  soil  when, 
before  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  the  Mormons 
settled  on  its  wastes,  it  seems  hard  that  their  claims 
should  not  be  equally  respected. 

After  all,  the  theory  of  Spanish  authority  was  a 
ridiculous  fiction.  The  Mormons  were  the  first  occu- 
pants of  the  country  which  now  forms  the  Territories 
of  Utah  and  Colorado  and  the  State  of  Nevada,  and 
were  thus  annexed  to  the  United  States  without  being 
in  the  least  degree  consulted.  It  is  true  that  they 
might  be  said  to  have  occupied  the  country  as  Amer- 
ican citizens,  and  so  to  have  carried  American  sov- 
ereignty with  them  into  the  wilderness;  but  this, 
again,  is  a  European,  not  an  American  theory.  Amer- 
ican citizens  are  such,  not  as  men  born  upon  a  certain 
soil,  but  as  being  citizens  of  a  State  of  the  Union,  or 
an  organized  Territory;  and  though  the  Mormons  may 
be  said  to  have  accepted  their  position  as  citizens  of 
the  Territory  of  Utah,  still  they  did  so  on  the  under- 
standing that  it  should  continue  a  Mormon  country, 
where  Gentiles  should  at  the  most  be  barely  tol- 
erated. 

We  need  not  go  further  into  the  mazes  of  public 
law,  or  of  ex  post  facto  American  enactments.  The 
Mormons  themselves  admit  that  the  letter  of  the  law 
is  against  them ;  but  say  that  while  it  is  claimed  that 


148  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Boston  and  Philadelphia  may  fitly  legislate  for  the 
Mormons  three  thousand  miles  away,  because  Utah  is 
a  Territory,  not  a  State,  men  forget  that  it  is  Boston 
and  Philadelphia  themselves  who  force  Utah  to  remain 
a  Territory,  although  they  admitted  the  less  populous 
Nebraska,  Nevada,  and  Oregon  to  their  rights  as 
States. 

If,  wholly  excluding  morals  from  the  calculation, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  upon  the  points  of  law,  there 
can  be  as  little  upon  the  military  question.  Of  the 
fifteen  hundred  miles  of  waterless  tract  or  desert  that 
we  crossed,  seven  hundred  have  been  annihilated,  and 
1869  may  see  the  railroad  track  in  the  streets  of  Salt 
Lake  City.  This  not  only  settles  the  military  ques- 
tion, but  is  meant  to  do  so.  When  men  lay  four  miles 
of  railroad  in  a  day,  and  average  two  miles  a  day  for 
a  whole  year,  when  a  government  bribes  high  enough 
to  secure  so  startling  a  rate  of  progress,  there  is  some- 
thing more  than  commerce  or  settlement  in  the  wind. 
The  Pacific  Railroad  is  not  merely  meant  to  be  the 
shortest  line  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco ;  it  is 
meant  to  put  down  Mormonism. 

If  the  Federal  government  decides  to  attack  these 
peaceable  citizens  of  a  Territory  that  should  long  since 
have  been  a  State,  they  certainly  will  not  fight,  and 
they  no  less  surely  will  not  disperse.  Polynesia  or 
Mexico  is  their  goal,  and  in  the  Marquesas  or  in  Sonora 
they  may,  perhaps,  for  a  few  years  at  least,  be  let  alone, 
again  to  prove  the  forerunners  of  English  civilization 
— planters  of  Saxon  institutions  and  the  English 
tongue ;  once  more  to  perform  their  mission,  as  they 
performed  it  in  Missouri  and  in  Utah. 

When  we  turn  from  the  simple  legal  question,  and 
the  still  more  simple  military  one,  to  the  moral  point 
involved  in  the  forcible  suppression  of  plural  marriage 


UTAH.  149 

in  one  State  by  the  might  of  all  the  others,  we  find 
the  consideration  of  the  matter  confused  by  the  appar- 
ent analogy  between  the  so-called  crusade  against 
slavery  and  the  proposed  crusade  against  polygamy. 
There  is  no  real  resemblance  between  the  cases.  In 
the  strictest  sense  there  was  no  more  a  crusade  against 
slavery  than  there  is  a  crusade  against  snakes  on  the 
part  of  a  man  who  strikes  one  that  bit  him.  The 
purest  republicans  have  never  pretended  that  the  abo- 
lition of  slavery  was  the  justification  of  the  war.  The 
South  rose  in  rebellion,  and  in  rising  gave  New  Eng- 
land an  opportunity  for  the  destruction  in  America  of 
an  institution  at  variance  with  the  republican  form  of 
government,  and  aggressive  in  its  tendencies.  So  far 
is  polygamy  from  being  opposed  in  spirit  to  democ- 
racy, that  it  is  impossible  here,  in  Salt  Lake  City,  not 
to  see  that  it  is  the  most  leveling  of  all  social  institu- 
tions— Mormonism  the  most  democratic  of  religions. 
A  rich  man  in  New  York  leaves  his  two  or  three  sons 
a  large  property,  and  founds  a  family ;  a  rich  Mormon 
leaves  his  twenty  or  thirty  sons  each  a  miserable  frac- 
tion of  his  money,  and  each  son  must  trudge  out  into 
the  world,  and  toil  for  himself.  Brigham's  sons — 
those  of  them  who  are  not  gratuitously  employed  in 
hard  service  for  the  church  in  foreign  parts — are  cattle- 
drivers,  small  farmers,  ranchmen.  One  of  them  was 
the  only  poorly-clad  boy  I  saw  in  Salt  Lake  City.  A 
system  of  polygamy,  in  which  all  the  wives,  and  con- 
sequently all  the  children,  are  equal  before  the  law,  is 
a  powerful  engine  of  democracy. 

The  general  moral  question  of  whether  Mormonism 
is  to  be  put  down  by  the  sword,  because  the  Latter- 
day  Saints  differ  in  certain  social  customs  from  other 
Christians,  is  one  for  the  preacher  and  the  casuist,  not 
for  a  traveling  observer  of  English-speaking  countries 

13* 


150  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

as  they  are.  Mormonism  comes  under  my  observation 
as  the  religious  and  social  system  of  the  most  success- 
ful of  all  pioneers  of  English  civilization.  From  this 
point  of  view  it  would  be  an  immediate  advantage  to 
the  world  that  they  should  be  driven  out  once  more 
into  the  wilderness,  again  to  found  an  England  in 
Mexico,  in  Polynesia,  or  on  Red  River.  It  may  be  an 
immediate  gain  to  civilization,  but  America  herself 
was  founded  by  schismatics  upon  a  basis  of  tolerance 
to  all;  and  there  are  still  to  be  found  Americans  who 
think  it  would  be  the  severest  blow  that  has  been 
dealt  to  liberty  since  the  St.  Bartholomew,  were  she 
to  lend  her  enormous  power  to  systematic  persecution 
at  the  cannon's  mouth. 

The  question  of  where  to  draw  the  line  is  one  of 
interest.  Great  Britain  draws  it  at  black  faces,  and 
would  hardly  tolerate  the  existence  among  her  white 
subjects  in  London  of  such  a  sect  as  that  of  the 
Maharajas  of  Bombay.  "  If  you  draw  the  line  at 
black  faces,''"  say  the  Mormons,  "  why  should  you 
not  let  the  Americans  draw  it  at  two  thousand  miles 
from  Washington  ?" 

The  moral  question  cannot  be  dissociated  from 
Mormon  history.  The  Saints  marched  from  Missouri 
and  Illinois,  into  no  man's  land,  intending  there  to 
live  out  of  the  reach  of  those  who  differed  from  them, 
as  do  the  Russian  dissenters  transported  in  past  ages 
to  the  provinces  of  Taurida  and  Kherson.  It  is  by  no 
fault  of  theirs,  they  say,  that  they  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States. 

There  is  in  the  far  West  a  fast  increasing  party  who 
would  leave  people  to  be  polygynists,  polyandrists, 
Free-lovers,  Shakers,  or  monogamists,  as  they  please ; 
who  would  place  the  social  relations  as  they  have 
placed  religion — out  of  the  reach  of  the  law.  I  need 


UTAH.  151 

hardly  say  that  public  opinion  has  such  overwhelming 
force  in  America  that  it  is  probable  that  even  under  a 
system  of  perfect  toleration  by  law,  two  forms  of  the 
family  relation  would  never  be  found  existing  side  by 
side.  Polygamists  would  continue  to  migrate  to  Mor- 
mon land,  Free-lovers  to  New  York,  Shakers  to  New 
England.  Some  will  find  in  this  a  reason  for,  and 
some  a  reason  against,  a  change.  In  any  case,  a  crusade 
against  Mormonism  will  hardly  draw  sympathy  from 
Nebraska,  from  Michigan,  from  Kansas. 

Many  are  found  who  say:  "Leave  Mormonism  to 
itself,  and  it  will  die.3'  The  Pacific  Railroad  alone, 
they  tnink,  will  kill  it.  Those  Americans  who  know 
Utah  best  are  not  of  this  opinion.  Mormonism  is  no 
superstition  of  the  past.  There  is  huge  vitality  in  the 
polygamic  church.  Emerson  once  spoke  to  me  of 
Unitarianism,  Buddhism,  and  Mormonism  as  three 
religions  which,  right  or  wrong,  are  full  of  force. 
"The  Mormons  only  need  to  be  persecuted,"  said 
Elder  Frederick  to  me,  "to  become  as  powerful  as 
the  Mohammedans."  It  is,  indeed,  more  than  doubtful 
whether  polygamy  can  endure  side  by  side  with 
American  monogamy— it  is  certain  that  Mormon 
priestly  power  and  Mormon  mysteries  cannot  in  the 
long  run  withstand  the  presence  of  a  large  Gentile 
population;  but,  if  Mormon  titles  to  land  are  re- 
spected, and  if  great  mineral  wealth  is  not  found 
to  exist  in  Utah,  Mormonism  will  not  be  exposed  to 
any  much  larger  Gentile  intrusion  than  it  has  to  cope 
with  now.  Settlers  who  can  go  to  California  or  to 
Colorado  "pares"  will  hardly  fix  themselves  in  the 
Utah  desert.  The  Mexican  table-lands  will  be  annexed 
before  Gentile  immigrants  seriously  trouble  Brigham. 
Gold  and  New  England  are  the  most  dreaded  ioes  of 
Mormondom.  Nothing  can  save  polygamy  if  lodes 


152  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

and  placers  such  as  those  of  all  the  surrounding  States 
are  found  in  Utah;  nothing  can  save  it  if  the  New 
Englanders  determine  to  put  it  down. 
s  Were  Congress  to  enforce  the  Homestead  laws  in 
Utah,  and  provide  for  the  presence  of  an  overwhelm- 
ing Gentile  population,  polygamy  would  not  only 
die  of  itself,  but  drag  Mormonism  down  in  its  fall. 
Brigham  knows  more  completely  than  we  can  the 
necessity  of  isolation.  He  would  not  be  likely  to 
await  the  blow  which  increased  Gentile  immigration 
would  deal  his  power. 

If  New  England  decides  to  act,  the  table-lands  of 
Mexico  will  see  played  once  more  the  sad  comedy  of 
Utah.  Again  the  Mormons  will  march  into  Mexican 
territory,  again  to  wake  some  day,  and  find  it  Amer- 
ican. Theirs,  however,  will  once  more  be  the  pride  of 
having  proved  the  pioneers  of  that  English  civilization 
which  is  destined  to  overspread  the  temperate  world. 
The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  annexed  Utah  to  the 
United  States,  but  Brigham  Young  annexed  it  to 
Anglo-Saxondom. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NAMELESS   ALPS. 

AT  the  post-office,  in  Main  Street,  I  gave  Mr.  Dixon 
a  few  last  messages  for  home — he  one  to  me  for  some 
Egyptian  friends;  and,  with  a  shake  and  a  wave,  we 
parted,  to  meet  in  London  after  between  us  completing 
the  circuit  of  the  globe. 

This  time  again  I  was  not  alone:  an  Irish  miner 


NAMELESS  ALPS.  153 

from  Montana,  with  a  bottle  of  whisky,  a  revolver  and 
pick,  shared  the  back-seat  with  the  mail-bags.  Before 
we  had  forded  the  Jordan,  he  had  sung  "  The  Wearing 
of  the  Green,"  and  told  me  the  day  and  the  hour  at 
which  the  republic  was  to  be  proclaimed  at  his  native 
village  in  Galway.  Like  a  true  Irishman  of  the  South 
or  West,  he  was  happy  only  when  he  could  be  gener- 
ous ;  and  so  much  joy  did  he  show  when  I  discovered 
that  the  cork  had  slipped  from  my  flask,  and  left  me 
dependent  on  him  for  my  escape  from  the  alkaline 
poison,  that  I  half  believed  he  had  drawn  it  himself 
when  we  stopped  to  change  horses  for  mules.  Certain 
it  is  that  he  pressed  his  whisky  so  fast  upon  me  and 
the  various  drivers,  that  the  day  we  most  needed  its 
aid  there  was  none,  and  the  bottle  itself  had  ended  its 
career  by  'serving  as  a  target  for  a  trial  of  breech- 
loading  pistols. 

At  the  sixth  ranch  from  the  city,  which  stands  on 
the  shores  of  the  lake,  and  close  to  the  foot  of  the 
mountains,  we  found  Porter  Rockwell,  accredited  chief 
of  the  Danites,  the  " Avenging  Angels"  of  Utah,  and 
leader,  it  is  said,  of  the  "White  Indians"  at  the 
Mountain  Meadows  massacre. 

Since  1840  there  has  been  no  name  of  greater  terror 
in  the  West  than  Rockwell's ;  but  in  1860  his  death 
was  reported  in  England,  and  the  career  of  the  great 
Brother  of  Gideon  was  ended,  as  we  thought.  I  was 
told  in  Salt  Lake  City  that  he  was  still  alive  and  well, 
and  his  portrait  was  among  those  that  I  got  from  Mr. 
Ottinger ;  but  I  am  not  convinced  that  the  man  I  saw, 
and  whose  picture  I  possess,  was  in  fact  the  Porter 
Rockwell  who  murdered  Stephenson  in  1842.  It  may 
be  convenient  to  have  two  or  three  men  to  pass  by  the 
one  name ;  and  I  suspect  that  this  is  so  in  the  Rock- 
well case. 


154  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Under  the  name  of  Porter  Rockwell  some  man  (or 
men)  has  been  the  terror  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  of 
plains  and  plateau,  for  thirty  years.  In  1841,  Joe 
Smith  prophesied  the  death  of  Governor  Boggs,  of 
Missouri,  within  six  months:  within  that  time  he  was 
shot — rumor  said  by  Rockwell.  When  the  Danite  was 
publicly  charged  with  having  done  the  deed  for  fifty 
dollars  and  a  wagon-team,  he  swore  he'd  shoot  any 
man  who  said  he'd  shot  Boggs  for  gain;  "  but  if  I  am 
charged  with  shooting  him,  they'll  have  to  prove  it  " — 
words  that  looked  like  guilt.  In  1842  Stephenson  died 
by  the  same  hand,  it  is  believed.  Rockwell  was  known 
to  be  the  working  chief  of  the  band  organized  in  1838 
to  defend  the  First  Presidency  by  any  means  what- 
ever, fair  or  foul,  known  at  various  times  as  the  "Big 
Fan"  that  should  winnow  the  chaff  from  the  wheat; 
the  "Daughter  of  Zion,"  the  "  Destructives,"  the  "Fly- 
ing Angels,"  the  "Brother  of  Gideon,"  the  "Destroy- 
ing Angels."  "  Arise  and  thresh,  O  daughter  of  Zion, 
for  I  will  make  thy  horn  iron,  and  will  make  thy  hoofs 
brass;  and  thou  shalt  beat  in  pieces  many  people;  and 
I  will  consecrate  their  gain  unto  the  Lord,  and  their 
substance  unto  the  lords  of  the  whole  earth" — this 
was  the  motto  of  the  band. 

Little  was  heard  of  the  Danites  from  the  time  that 
the  Mormons  were  driven  from  Illinois  and  Missouri 
until  1852,  when  murder  after  murder,  massacre  after 
massacre,  occurred  in  the  Grand  Plateau.  Bands  of 
immigrants,  of  settlers  on  their  road  to  California, 
parties  of  United  States  officers,  and  escaping  Mor- 
mons, were  attacked  by  "Indians,"  and  found  scalped 
by  the  next  whites  who  came  upon  their  trail.  It 
was  rumored  in  the  Eastern  States  that  the  red  men 
were  Mormons  in  disguise,  following  the  tactics  of 
the  Anti-Renters  of  New  York.  In  the  case  of  Al- 


PORTER   ROCKWELL.— P.  154. 


NAMELESS  ALPS.  155 

mon  Babbitt,  the  "Indians"  were  proved  to  have  been 
white. 

The  atrocities  culminated  in  the  Mountain  Meadows 
massacre  in  1857,  when  hundreds  of  men,  women,  and 
children  were  murdered  by  men  armed  and  clothed  as 
Indians,  but  sworn  to  by  some  who  escaped  as  being 
whites.  Porter  Rockwell  has  had  the  infamy  of  this 
tremendous  slaughter  piled  on  to  the  huge  mass  of  his 
earlier  deeds  of  blood — whether  rightly  or  wrongly, 
who  shall  say?  The  man  that  I  saw  was  the  man  that 
Captain  Burton  saw  in  1860.  His  death  was  solemnly 
recorded  in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  yet  of  the  identity 
of  the  person  I  saw  with  the  person  described  by  Cap- 
tain Burton  there  can  be  no  question.  The  bald, 
frowning  forehead,  the  sinister  smile,  the  long  grizzly 
curls  falling  upon  the  back,  the  red  cheek,  the  coal 
beard,  the  gray  eye,  are  not  to  be  mistaken.  Rock- 
well or  not,  he  is  a  man  capable  of  any  deed.  I  had 
his  photograph  in  my  pocket,  and  wanted  to  get  him 
to  sign  it;  but  when,  in  awe  of  his  glittering  bowie 
and  of  his  fame,  I  asked,  by  way  of  caution,  the  ranch- 
man— a  new-come  Paddy — whether  Rockwell  could 
write,  the  fellow  told  me  with  many  an  oath  that  "the 
boss"  was  as  innocent  of  letters  as  a  babe.  "As  for 
writiny  he  said,  "cuss  me  if  he's  on  it.  You  bet  he's 
not — you  bet." 

"Not  far  beyond  Rockwell's,  we  drove  close  to  the 
bench-land ;  and  I  was  able  to  stop  for  a  moment  and 
examine  the  rocks.  From  the  veranda  of  the  Mor- 
mon poet  Naisbitt's  house  in  Salt  Lake  City,  I  had 
remarked  a  double  line  of  terrace  running  on  one 
even  level  round  the  whole  of  the  great  valley  to  the 
south,  cut  by  nature  along  the  base  alike  of  the 
Oquirrh  and  the  Wasatch. 

I  had  thought  it  possible  that  the  terrace  was  the 


156  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

result  of  the  varying  hardness  of  the  strata;  but,  near 
Black  Rock,  on  the  overland  track,  I  discovered  that 
where  the  terrace  lines  have  crossed  the  mountain 
precipices,  they  are  continued  merely  by  deep  stains 
upon  the  rocks.  The  inference  is  that  within  ex- 
tremely recent,  if  not  historic  times,  the  water  has 
stood  at  these  levels  from  two  to  three  hundred  feet 
above  the  present  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  itself  4500 
feet  above  the  sea.  Three  days'  journey  farther  west, 
on  the  Reese's  River  Range,  I  detected  similar  stains. 
Was  the  whole  basin  of  the  Rocky  Mountains — here 
more  than  a  thousand  miles  across — once  filled  with  a 
huge  sea,  of  which  the  two  Sierras  were  the  shores, 
and  the  Wasatch,  Goshoot,  Waroja,  Toi,  Abbs',  Hum- 
boldt,  Washoe,  and  a  hundred  other  ranges,  the  rocks 
and  isles  ?  The  Great  Salt  Lake  is  but  the  largest  of 
many  such.  I  saw  one  on  Mirage  Plains  that  is  salter 
than  its  greater  fellow.  Carson  Sink  is  evidently  the 
bed  of  a  smaller  bitter  lake;  and  there  are  salt  pools 
in  dozens  scattered  through  Ruby  and  Smoky  Valleys. 
The  Great  Salt  Lake  itself  is  sinking  year  by  year, 
and  the  sage-brush  is  gaining  upon  the  alkali  desert 
throughout  the  Grand  Plateau.  All  these  signs  point 
to  the  rapid  drying-up  of  a  great  sea,  owing  to  an 
alteration  of  climatic  conditions. 

In  the  Odd  Fellows'  Library  at  San  Francisco  I 
found  a  map  of  North  America,  signed  "  John  Harris, 
A.M.,"  and  dated  "1605,"  which  shows  a  great  lake 
in  the  country  now  comprised  in  the  Territories  of 
Utah  and  Dakota.  It  has  a  width  of  fifteen  degrees, 
and  is  named  "Thongo,  or  Thoya."  It  is  not  likely 
that  this  inland  sea  is  a  mere  exaggeration  of  the 
present  Great  Salt  Lake,  because  the  views  of  that 
sheet  of  water  are  everywhere  limited  by  islands  in 
such  a  way  as  to  give  to  the  eye  the  effect  of  exceed- 


NAMELESS   ALPS.  157 

ing  narrowness.  It  is  possible  that  the  Jesuit  Fathers, 
and  other  Spanish  travelers  from  California,  may  have 
looked  from  the  Utah  mountains  on  the  dwindling 
remnant  of  a  great  inland  sea. 

On  we  jogged  and  jolted,  till  we  lost  sight  of  the 
American  dead  sea  and  of  its  lovely  valley,  and  got 
into  a  canyon  floored  with  huge  boulders  and  slabs  of 
roughened  rock,  where  I  expected  each  minute  to  un- 
dergo the  fate  of  that  Indian  traveler  who  received 
such  a  jolt  that  he  bit  off  the  tip  of  his  own  tongue,  or 
of  Horace  Greeley,  whose  head  was  bumped,  it  is  said, 
through  the  roof  of  his  conveyance.  Here,  as  upon 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Wasatch,  the  track  was  marked 
by  never-ending  lines  of  skeletons  of  mules  and  oxen. 

On  the  first  evening  from  Salt  Lake,  we  escaped 
once  more  from  man  at  Stockton,  a  Gentile  mining 
settlement  in  Rush  Valley,  too  small  to  be  called  a 
village,  though  possessed  of  a  municipality,  and  claim- 
ing the  title  of  "city."  By  night  we  crossed  by  Rey- 
nolds' Pass  the  Parolom  or  Cedar  Range,  in  a  two- 
horse  "jerky,"  to  which  we  had  been  shifted  for  speed 
and  safety.  Upon  the  heights  the  frost  was  bitter; 
and  when  we  stopped  at  3  A.M.  for  "supper,"  in  which 
breakfast  was  combined,  we  crawled  into  the  stable 
like  flies  in  autumn,  half  killed  by  the  sudden  chill. 
My  miner  spoke  but  once  all  night.  "It's  right  cold," 
he  said ;  but  fifty  times  at  least  he  sang  "  The  Wear- 
ing of  the  Green."  It  was  his  only  tune. 

Soon  after  light,  we  passed  the  spot  where  Captain 
Gunnison  of  the  Federal  Engineers,  who  had  been  in 
1853  the  first  explorer  of  the  Smoky  Hill  route,  was 
killed  "by  the  Ute  Indians."  Gunnison  was  an  old 
enemy  of  the  Mormons,  and  the  spot  is  ominously  near 
to  Rockwell's  home.  Here  we  came  out  once  more 
into  the  alkali,  and  our  troubles  from  dust  began.  For 

14 


158  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

hours  we  were  in  a  desert -white  as  snow;  but  for  re- 
ward we  gained  a  glorious  view  of  the  Goshoot  Range, 
which  we  crossed  by  night,  climbing  silently  on  foot 
for  hours  in  the  moonlight.  The  walking  saved  us 
from  the  cold. 

The  third  day — a  Sunday  morning — we  were  at  the 
foot  of  the  Waroja  Mountains,  with  Egan  Canyon  for 
our  pass,  hewn  by  nature  through  the  living  rock. 
You  dare  swear  you  see  the  chisel-marks  upon  the 
stone.  A  gold-mill  had  years  ago  been  erected  here, 
and  failed.  The  heavy  machinery  was  lost  upon  the 
road ;  but  the  four  stone  walls  contained  between  them 
the  wreck  of  the  lighter  "plant." 

As  we  jolted  and  journeyed  on  across  the  succeeding 
plain,  we  spied  in  the  far  distance  a  group  of  black 
dots  upon  the  alkali.  Man  seems  very  small  in  the  in- 
finite expanse  of  the  Grand  Plateau — the  roof,  as  it 
were,  of  the  world.  At  the  end  of  an  hour  we  were 
upon  them — a  company  of  "  overlanders"  "  tracking" 
across  the  continent  with  mules.  First  came  two 
mounted  men,  well  armed  with  Deringers  in  the  belt, 
and  Ballard  breech-loaders  on  the  thigh,  prepared  for 
ambush— ready  for  action  against  elk  or  red-skin.  About 
fifty  yards  behind  these  scowling  fellows  came  the  main 
band  of  bearded,  red-shirted  diggers,  in  huge  boots  and 
felt  hats,  each  man  riding  one  mule,  and  driving  another 
laden  with  packs  and  buckets.  As  we  came  up,  the  main 
body  halted,  and  an  interchange  of  compliments  began. 
"  Say,  mister,  thet's  a  slim  horse  of  yourn."  "  Guess 
not — guess  he's  all  sorts  of  a  horse,  he  air.  And  how 
far  might  it  be  to  the  State  of  Varmount?"  "Wall, 
guess  the  boys  down  to  hum  will  be  kinder  joyed  to 
see  us,  howsomever  that  may  be."  Just  at  this  mo- 
ment a  rattlesnake  was  spied,  and  every  revolver  dis- 
charged with  a  shout,  all  hailing  the  successful  shot 


i- 


160  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

completest  masters  of  the  art  of  Western  swearing. 
The  cooks  had  a  New  England  cut ;  the  hostlers,  like 
Southerners,  wore  their  hair  all  down  their  backs.  I 
begged  an  explanation  of  the  reason  for  the  marked 
distinction.  "  They  are  picked,"  he  said,  "from  dif- 
ferent classes.  When  a  boy  comes  to  me  and  asks  for 
something  to  do,  I  give  him  a  look,  and  see  what  kind 
of  stuff  he's  made  of.  If  he's  a  gay  duck  out  for  a 
six-weeks'  spree,  I  send  him  down  here,  or  to  Bitter 
Wells ;  but  if  he's  a  clerk  or  a  poet,  or  any  such  sorter 
fool  as  that,  why  then  I  set  him  cooking ;  and  plaguy 
good  cooks  they  make,  as  you  must  find." 

The  drivers  on  this  portion  of  the  route  are  as  odd 
fellows  as  are  the  ranchmen.  Wearing  huge  jack-boots, 
flannel  shirts  tucked  into  their  trowsers,  but  no  coat  or 
vest,  and  hats  with  enormous  brims,  they  have  their 
hair  long,  and  their  beards  untrimmed.  Their  oaths, 
I  need  hardly  say,  are  fearful.  At  night  they  wrap 
themselves  in  an  enormous  cloak,  drink  as  much 
whisky  as  their  passengers  can  spare  them,  crack 
their  whips,  and  yell  strange  yells.  They  are  quarrel- 
some and  overbearing,  honest  probably,  but  eccentric 
in  their  ways  of  showing  it.  They  belong  chiefly  to 
the  mixed  Irish  and  German  race,  and  have  all  been 
in  Australia  during  the  gold  rush,  and  in  California 
before  deep  sinking  replaced  the  surface  diggings. 
They  will  tell  you  how  they  often  washed  out  and 
gambled  away  a  thousand  ounces  in  a  month,  living 
like  .Roman  emperors,  then  started  in  digging-life 
again  upon  the  charity  of  their  wealthier  friends. 
They  hate  men  dressed  in  "biled  shirts,"  or  in  "store 
clothes,"  and  show  their  aversion  in  strange  ways.  I 
had  no  objection  myself  to  build  fires  and  fetch  wood; 
but  I  drew  the  line  at  going  into  the  sage-brush  to 
catch  the  mules,  that  not  being  a  business  which  I 


NAMELESS   ALPS.  161 

felt  competent  to  undertake.  The  season  was  ad- 
vanced, the  snows  had  not  yet  reached  the  valleys, 
which  were  parched  by  the  drought  of  all  the  sum- 
mer, feed  for  the  mules  was  scarce,  and  they  wandered 
a  long  way.  Time  after  time  we  would  drive  into  a 
station,  the  driver  saying,  with  strange  oaths,  "  Guess 
them  mules  is  clared  out  from  this  here  ranch ;  guess 
they  is  into  this  sage-brush;"  and  it  would  be  an  hour 
before  the  mules  would  be  discovered  feeding  in  some 
forgotten  valley.  Meanwhile  the  miner  and  myself 
would  have  revolver  practice  at  the  skeletons  and 
telegraph-posts  when  sage  fowl  failed  us,  and  rattle- 
snakes grew  scarce. 

After  all,  it  is  easy  to  speak  of  the  eccentricities  of 
dress  and  manner  displayed  by  Western  men,  but 
Eastern  men  and  Europeans  upon  the  plateau  are  not 
the  prim  creatures  of  Fifth  Avenue  or  Pall  Mall.  From 
San  Francisco  I  sent  home  an  excellent  photograph  of 
myself  in  the  clothes  in  which  I  had  crossed  the  plateau, 
those  being  the  onlv  ones  I  had  to  wear  till  my  baggage 
came  round  from  Panama.  The  result  was,  that  my 
oldest  friends  failed  to  recognize  the  portrait.  At  the 
foot  I  had  written  -"  A  Border  Ruffian  :"  they  believed 
not  the  likeness,  but  the  legend. 

The  difficulties  of  dress  upon  these  mountain  ranges 
are  great  indeed.  To  sit  one  night  exposed  to  keen 
frost  and  biting  wind,  and  the  next  day  to  toil  for  hours 
up  a  mountain-side,  beneath  a  blazing  sun,  are  very 
opposite  conditions.  I  found  my  dress  no  bad  one. 
At  night  I  wore  a  Canadian  fox-fur  cap,  Mormon  'coon- 
skin  gloves,  two  coats,  and  the  whole  of  my  light  silk 
shirts.  By  clay  I  took  off  the  coats,  the  gloves,  and 
cap,  and  walked  in  my  shirts,  adding  but  a  Panama 
hat  to  my  "  fit-out." 

As  we  began  the  ascent  of  the  Pond  River  Range, 

14* 


162  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

we  caught  up  a  bullock-train,  which  there  was  not 
room  to  pass.  The  miner  and  myself  turned  out  from 
the  jerky,  and  for  hours  climbed  alongside  the  wagons. 
I  was  struck  by  the  freemasonry  of  this  mountain 
travel :  Bryant,  the  miner,  had  come  to  the  end  of  his 
"solace,"  as  the  most  famed  chewing  tobacco  in  these 
parts  is  called.  Going  up  to  the  nearest  teamster,  he 
asked  for  some,  and  was  at  once  presented  with  a  huge 
cake — enough,  I  should  have  thought,  to  have  lasted 
a  Channel  pilot  for  ten  years. 

The  climb  was  long  enough  to  give  me  deep  insight 
into  the  inner  mysteries  of  bullock-driving.  Each  of 
the  great  two-storied  Californian  wagons  was  drawn  by 
twelve  stout  oxen ;  still,  the  pace  was  not  a  mile  an 
hour,  accomplished,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  not  so  much 
by  the  aid  as  in  spite  of  tremendous  flogging.  Each 
teamster  carried  a  short-handled  whip  with  a  twelve- 
foot  leathern  lash,  which  was  wielded  with  two  hands, 
and,  after  many  a  whirl,  brought  down  along  the  whole 
length  of  the  back  of  each  bullock  of  the  team  in  turn, 
the  stroke  being  accompanied  by  a  shout  of  the  bul- 
lock's name,  and  followed,  as  it  was  preceded,  by  a 
string  of  the  most  explosive  oaths.  The  favorite 
names  for  bullocks  were  those  of  noted  public  charac- 
ters and  of  Mormon  elders,  and  cries  were  frequent  of 
"Ho,  Brigham!"  "Ho,  Joseph!"  "Ho,  Grant !"— the 
blow  falling  with  the  accented  syllable.  The  London 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals  would 
find  at  Pond  River  ranch  an  excellent  opening  for  a 
mission.  The  appointed  officer  should  be  supplied 
with  two  Deringers  and  a  well-filled  whisky-barrel. 

Through  a  gap  in  the  mountain  crest  we  sighted  the 
West  Humboldt  Range,  across  an  open  country  dotted 
here  and  there  with  stunted  cedar,  and,  crossing  Smoky 
Valley,  we  plunged  into  a  deep  pass  in  the  Toi  Abbe 


NAMELESS  ALPS.  163 

Range,  and  reached  Austin — a  mining  town  of  import- 
ance, rising  two  years  old — in  the  afternoon  of  the 
fourth  day  from  Salt  Lake  City. 

After  dining  at  an  Italian  digger's  restaurant  with 
an  amount  of  luxury  that  recalled  our  feasts  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  I  started  on  a  stroll,  in  which  I  was  stopped 
at  once  by  a  shout  from  an  open  bar-room  of  "Say, 
mister !"  Pulling  up  sharply,  I  was  surrounded  by  an 
eager  crowd,  asking  from  all  sides  the  one  question : 
"  Might  you  be  Professor  Muller  ?"  Although  flattered 
to  find  that  I  looked  less  disreputable  and  ruffianly 
than  I  felt,  I  nevertheless  explained  as  best  I  could 
that  I  was  no  professor — only  to  be  assured  that  if  I 
was  any  professor  at  all,  Muller  or  other,  I  should  do 
just  as  well:  a  mule  was  ready  for  me  to  ride  to  the 
mine,  and  "Jess  kinder  fix  us  up  about  this  new  lode." 
If  my  new-found  friends  had  not  carried  an  overwhelm- 
ing force  of  pistols,  I  might  have  gone  to  the  mine 
as  Professor  Muller,  and  given  my  opinion  for  what  it 
was  worth :  as  it  was,  I  escaped  only  by  "  liquoring 
up  "  over  the  error.  Cases  of  mistaken  identity  are 
not  always  so  pleasant  in  Austin.  They  told  me  that, 
a  few  weeks  before,  a  man  riding  down  the  street 
heard  a  shot,  saw  his  hat  fall  into  the  mud,  and,  pick- 
ing it  up,  found  a  small  round  hole  on  each  side.  Look- 
ing up,  he  saw  a  tall  miner,  revolver  smoking  in  hand, 
who  smiled  grimly,  and  said:  "  Guess  thet's  my  muel." 
Having  politely  explained  when  and  where  the  mule 
was  bought,  the  miner  professed  himself  satisfied  with 
a  "Guess  I  was  wrong — let's  liquor." 

In  the  course  of  my  walk  through  Austin  I  came 
upon  a  row  of  neat  huts,  each  with  a  board  on  which 
was  painted,  "  Sam  Sing,  washing  and  ironing,"  or 
"  Mangling  by  Ah  Low."  A  few  paces  farther  on  was 
a  shop  painted  red,  but  adorned  with  cabalistic  scrawls 


164  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

in  black  ink;  and  farther  still  was  a  tiny  joss  house. 
Yellow  men,  in  spotless  clothes  of  dark-green  and 
blue,  were  busy  at  buying  and  selling,  at  cooking,  at 
washing.  Some,  at  a  short  trot,  were  carrying  bur- 
dens at  the  end  of  a  long  bamboo  pole.  All  were 
quiet,  quick,  orderly,  and  clean.  I  had  at  last  come 
thoroughly  among  the  Chinese  people,  not  to  lose  sight 
of  them  again  until  I  left  Geelong,  or  even  Suez. 

Returning  to  the  room  where  I  had  dined,  I  parted 
with  Pat  Bryant,  quitting  him,  in  Western  fashion,  after 
a  good  "  trade  "  or  "  swop."  He  had  taken  a  fancy  to 
the  bigger  of  my  two  revolvers.  He  was  going  to 
breed  cattle  in  Oregon,  he  told  me,  and  thought  it 
might  be  useful  for  shooting  his  wildest  beasts  by 
riding  in  the  Indian  manner,  side  by  side  with  them, 
and  shooting  at  the  heart.  I  answered  by  guessing 
that  I  "was  on  the  sell;"  and  traded  the  weapon 
against  one  of  his  that  matched  my  smaller  tool. 
When  I  reached  Virginia  City,  I  inquired  prices,  and 
was  almost  disappointed  to  find  that  I  had  not  been 
cheated  in  the  "trade." 

A  few  minutes  after  leaving  the  "  hotel "  at  Austin, 
and  calling  at  the  post-office  for  the  mails,  I  again 
found  myself  in  the  desert— indeed,  Austin  itself  can 
hardly  be  styled  an  oasis :  it  may  have  gold,  but  it  has 
no  green  thing  within  its  limits.  It  is  in  canyons  and  on 
plains  like  these,  with  the  skeletons  of  oxen  every  few 
yards  along  the  track,  that  one  comes  to  comprehend 
the  full  significance  of  the  terrible  entry  in  the  army 
route-books — "E~o  grass;  no  water." 

Descending  a  succession  of  tremendous  "grades," 
as  inclines  upon  roads  and  railroads  are  called  out 
West,  we  came  on  to  the  lava-covered  plain  of  Reese's 
River  Valley,  a  wall  of  snowy  mountain  rising  grandly 
in  our  front.  Close  to  the  stream  were  a  ranch  or  two, 


NAMELESS  ALPS.  165 

and  a  double  camp,  of  miners  and  of  a  company  of 
Federal  troops.  The  diggers  were  playing  with  their 
glistening  knives  as  diggers  only  can;  the  soldiers — 
their  huge  sombreros  worn  loosely  on  one  side — were 
lounging  idly  in  the  sun. 

Within  an  hour,  we  were  again  in  snow  and  ice  upon 
the  summit  of  another  nameless  range. 

This  evening,  after  five  sleepless  nights,  I  felt  most 
terribly  the  peculiar  form  of  fatigue  that  we  had  ex- 
perienced after  six  days  and  nights  upon  the  plains. 
Again  the  brain  seemed  divided  into  two  parts,  think- 
ing independently,  and  one  side  putting  questions 
wrhile  the  other  answered  them ;  but  this  time  there 
was  also  a  sort  of  half  insanity,  a  not  altogether  dis- 
agreeable wandering  of  the  mind,  a  replacing  of  the 
actual  by  an  imagined  ideal  scene. 

On  and  on  we  journeyed,  avoiding  the  Shoshon£  and 
West  Humboldt  Mountains,  but  picking  our  way  along 
the  most  fearful  ledges  that  it  has  been  my  fate  to  cross, 
and  traversing  from  end  to  end  the  dreadful  Mirage 
Plains.  At  nightfall  we  sighted  Mount  Davidson  and 
the  Washoe  Range,  and  at  3  A.M.  I  was  in  bed  once 
more — in  Virginia  City. 


166  GREATER    BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

VIRGINIA   CITY. 

"  GUESS  the  governor's  consid'rable  skeert." 

"  You  bet,  he's  mad." 

My  sitting  down  to  breakfast  at  the  same  small  table 
seemed  to  end  the  talk  ;  but  I  had  not  been  out  West 
for  nothing,  so  explaining  that  I  was  only  four  hours 
in  Virginia  City,  I  inquired  what  had  occurred  to  fill 
the  governor  of  Nevada  with  vexation  and  alarm. 

"  D'you  tell  now !  only  four  hours  in  this  great 
young  city.  Wall,  guess  it's  a  bully  business.  You 
see,  some  time  back  the  governor  pardoned  a  road 
agent  after  the  citizens  had  voted  him  a  rope.  Yes, 
sir!  But  that  ain't  all :  yesterday,  cuss  me  if  he  didn't 
refuse  ter  pardon  one  of  the  boys  who  had  jess  shot 
another  in  play  like.  Guess  he  thinks  hisself  some 
pumpkins."  I  duly  expressed  my  horror,  and  my 
informant  went  on :  "  Wall,  guess  the  citizens  paid 
him  offpurty  slick.  They  jess  sent  him  a  short  thick 
bit  of  rope  with  a  label  i  For  his  Excellency.'  You 
bet  ef  he  ain't  mad — you  bet !  Pass  us  those  molasses, 
mister." 

I  was  not  disappointed :  I  had  not  come  to  Nevada 
for  nothing.  To  see  Virginia  City  and  Carson,  since 
I  first  heard  their  fame  in  New  York,  had  been  with 
me  a  passion,  but  the  deed  thus  told  me  in  the  dining- 
room  of  the  "  Empire"  Hotel  was  worthy  a  place  in  the 
annals  of  "Washoe."  Under  its  former  name,  the 
chief  town  of  Nevada  was  ranked  not  only  the  highest, 


VIRGINIA    CITY.  167 

but  the  "cussedest"  town  in  the  States,  its  citizens  ex- 
pecting a  "  dead  man  for  breakfast"  every  day,  and  its 
streets  ranging  from  seven  to  eight  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea.  Its  twofold  fame  is  leaving  it:  the  Coloradan 
villages  of  North  Empire  and  Black  Hawk  are  nine  or 
ten  thousand  feet  above  sea  level,  and  Austin,  and 
Virginia  City  in  Montana  beat  it  in  playful  pistoling 
and  vice.  Nevertheless,  in  the  point  of  "  pure  cussed- 
ness"  old  Washoe  still  stands  well,  as  my  first  intro- 
duction to  its  ways  will  show.  All  the  talk  of  Nevada 
reformation  applies  only  to  the  surface  signs :  when  a 
miner  tells  you  that  Washoe  is  turning  pious,  and  that 
he  intends  shortly  to  "vamose,"  he  means  that,  unlike 
Austin,  which  is  still  in  its  first  state  of  mule-stealing 
and  monte',  Virginia  City  has  passed  through  the  sec- 
ond period — that  of  "vigilance  committees"  and  "his- 
toric trees"— and  is  entering  the  third,  the  stage  of 
churches  and  "city  officers,"  or  police. 

The  population  is  still  a  shifting  one.  A  by-law  of 
the  municipality  tells  us  that  the  "permanent  popula- 
tion" consists  of  those  who  reside  more  than  a  month 
within  the  city.  At  this  moment  the  miners  are  pour- 
ing into  "Washoe  from  north  and  south  and  east,  from 
Montana,  from  Arizona,  and  from  Utah,  coming  to 
the  gayeties  of  the  largest  mining  city  to  spend  their 
money  during  the  fierce  short  winter.  When  I  saw 
Virginia  City,  it  was  worse  than  Austin. 

Every  other  house  is  a  restaurant,  a  drinking-shop, 
a  gaming-hell,  or  worse.  With  no  one  to  make  beds, 
to  mend  clothes,  to  cook  food — with  no  house,  no 
home — men  are  almost  certain  to  drink  and  gamble. 
The  Washoe  bar-rooms  are  -the  most  brilliant  in  the 
States:  as  we  drove  in  from  Austin  at  3  A.M.,  there 
was  blaze  enough  for  us  to  see  from  the  frozen  street 
the  portraits  of  Lola  Montez,  Ada  Menken,  Heenan, 


168  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

and  the  other  Californian  celebrities  with  which  the 
bar-rooms  were  adorned. 

Although  "petticoats,"  even  Chinese,  are  scarce, 
dancing  was  going  on  in  every  house;  but  there  is  a 
rule  in  miners'  balls  that  prevents  all  difficulties  arising 
from  an  over-supply  of  men :  every  one  who  has  a  patch 
on  the  rear  portion  of  his  breeches  does  duty  for  a  lady 
in  the  dance,  and  as  gentlemen  are  forced  by  the  cus- 
tom of  the  place  to  treat  their  partners  at  the  bar, 
patches  are  popular. 

Up  to  eleven  in  the  morning  hardly  a  man  was  to  be 
seen :  a  community  that  sits  up  all  night,  begins  its 
work  in  the  afternoon.  For  hours  I  had  the  blazing 
hills  called  streets  to  myself  for  meditating  ground; 
but  it  did  not  need  hours  to  bring  me  to  think  that  a 
Vermonter's  description  of  the  climate  of  the  mount- 
ains was  not  a  bad  one  when  he  said:  "You  rise  at 
eight,  and  shiver  in  your  cloak  till  nine,  when  you  lay 
it  aside,  and  walk  freely  in  your  woolens.  At  twelve 
you  come  in  for  your  gauze  coat  and  your  Panama ;  at 
two  you  are  in  a  hammock  cursing  the  heat,  but  at 
four  you  venture  out  again,  and  by  five  are  in  your 
woolens.  At  six  you  begin  to  shake  with  cold,  and 
shiver  on  till  bedtime,  which  you  make  darned  early." 
Even  at  this  great  height,  the  thermometer  in  the  after- 
noon touches  80°  Fahr.  in  the  shade,  while  from  sunset 
to  sunrise  there  is  a  bitter  frost.  So  it  is  throughout 
the  plateau.  When  morning  after  morning  we  reached 
a  ranch,  and  rushed  out  of  the  freezing  ambulance 
through  the  still  colder  outer  air  to  the  fragrant  cedar 
fire,  there  to  roll  with  pain  at  the  thawing  of  our  joints, 
it  was  hard  to  bear  it  in  mind  that  by  eight  o'clock  we 
should  be  shutting  out  the  sun,  and  by  noon  melting 
even  in  the  deepest  shade. 

As  I  sat  at  dinner  in  a  miner's  restaurant,  my  oppo- 


VIRGINIA    CITY.  169 

site  neighbor,  finding  that  I  was  not  long  from  Eng- 
land, informed  me  he  was  "the  independent  editor  of 
the  Nevada  Union  Gazette"  and  went  on  to  ask:  "And 
how  might  you  have  left  literatooral  pursoots  ?  How 
air  Tennyson  and  Thomas  T.  Carlyle  ?"  I  assured  him 
that  to  the  best  of  my  belief  they  were  fairly  well,  to 
which  his  reply  was:  "  Guess  them  ther  men  ken  sling 
ink,  they  ken."  When  we  parted,  he  gave  me  a  copy 
of  his  paper,  in  which  I  found  that  he  called  a  rival 
editor  "  a  walking  whisky-bottle"  and  "  a  Fenian  imp." 
The  latter  phrase  reminded  me  that,  of  the  two  or 
three  dozen  American  editors  that  I  had  met,  this  New 
Englander  was  the  first  who  was  "  native  born."  Sten- 
house,  in  Salt  Lake  City,  is  an  Englishman,  so  is  Stan- 
ton,  of  Denver,  and  the  whole  of  the  remainder  of  the 
band  were  Irishmen.  As  for  the  earlier  assertion  in 
the  "  editorial,"  it  was  not  a  wild  one,  seeing  that  Vir- 
ginia City  has  five  hundred  whisky- shops  for  a  popula- 
tion of  ten  thousand.  Artemus  Ward  said  of  Vir- 
ginia City,  in  a  farewell  speech  to  the  inhabitants  that 
should  have  been  published  in  his  works:  " I  never, 
gentlemen,  was  in  a  city  where  I  was  treated  so  well, 
nor,  I  will  add,  so  often."  Through  every  open  door 
the  diggers  can  be  seen  tossing  the  whisky  down  their 
throats  with  a  scowl  of  resolve,  as  though  they  were 
committing  suicide  —  which,  indeed,  except  in  the 
point  of  speed,  is  probably  the  case. 

The  Union  Gazette  was  not  the  only  paper  that  I  had 
given  me  to  read  that  morning.  Not  a  bridge  over  a 
"  crick,"  not  even  a  blacked  pair  of  boots,  made  me  so 
thoroughly  aware  that  I  had  in  a  measure  returned  to 
civilization  as  did  the  gift  of  an  Alta  Calif ornian  containing 
a  report  of  a  debate  in  the  English  Parliament  upon  the 
Bank  Charter  Act.  The  speeches  were  appropriate 
to  my  feelings ;  I  had  just  returned  not  only  to  civili- 

15 


170  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

zation,  but  to  the  European  inconveniences  of  gold  and 
silver  money.  In  Utah,  gold  and  greenbacks  circulate 
indifferently,  with  a  double  set  of  prices  always  marked 
and  asked ;  in  Nevada  and  California,  greenbacks  are 
as  invisible  as  gold  in  New  York  or  Kansas.  Nothing 
can  persuade  the  Californians  that  the  adoption  by  the 
Eastern  States  of  an  inconvertible  paper  system  is  any- 
thing but  the  result  of  a  conspiracy  against  the  Pacific 
States — one  in  which  they  at  least  are  determined  to 
have  no  share.  Strongly  Unionist  in  feeling  as  were 
California,  Oregon,  and  Nevada  during  the  rebellion, 
to  have  forced  greenbacks  upon  them  would  have  been 
almost  more  than  their  loyalty  would  have  borne.  In 
the  severest  taxation  they  were  prepared  to  acquiesce; 
but  paper  money  they  believe  to  be  downright  robbery, 
and  the  invention  of  the  devil. 

To  me  the  reaching  gold  once  more  was  far  from 
pleasant,  for  the  advantages  of  paper  money  to  the 
traveler  are  enormous ;  it  is  light,  it  wears  no  holes  in 
your  pockets,  it  reveals  its  presence  by  no  untimely 
clinking;  when  you  jump  from  a  coach,  every  thief 
within  a  mile  is  hot  at  once  aware  that  you  have  ten 
dollars  in  your  right-hand  pocket.  The  Nevadans  say 
that  forgeries  are  so  common  that  their  neighbors  in 
Colorado  have  been  forced  to  agree  that  any  decent 
imitation  shall  be  taken  as  good,  it  being  too  difficult 
to  examine  into  each  case.  For  my  part,  though  in 
rapid  travel  a  good  deal  of  paper  passed  through  my 
hands  in  change,  my  only  loss  by  forgery  wras  one  half- 
dollar  note ;  my  loss  by  wear  and  tear  the  same. 

In  spite  of  the  gold  currency,  prices  are  higher  in 
Nevada  than  in  Denver.  A  shave  is  half  a  dollar — 
gold  ;  in  Washoe  and  in  Atchison,  but  a  paper  quarter. 
A  boot-blacking  is  fifty  cents  in  gold,  instead  of  ten 
cents  paper,  as  in  Chicago  or  St.  Louis. 


VIRGINIA    CITY.  171 

During  the  war,  when  fluctuations  in  the  value  of 
the  paper  were  great  and  sudden,  prices  changed  from 
day  to  day.  Hotel  proprietors  in  the  West  received 
their  guests  at  breakfast,  it  is  said,  with  "Glorious 

news;  we've  whipped  at .  Gold's  180;  board's 

down  half  a  dollar."  While  I  was  in  the  country,  gold 
fluctuated  between  140  and  163,  but  prices  remained 
unaltered. 

Paper  money  is  of  some  use  to  a  young  country  in 
making  the  rate  of  wages  appear  enormous,  and  so  at- 
tracting immigration.  If  a  Cork  bog-trotter  is  told 
that  he  can  get  two  dollars  a  day  for  his  work  in  Amer- 
ica, but  only  one  in  Canada,  no  economic  considera- 
tions interfere  to  prevent  him  rushing  to  the  nominally 
higher  rate.  Whether  the  workingmen  of  America 
have  been  gainers  by  the  inflation  of  the  currency,  or 
the  reverse,  it  is  hard  to  say.  It  has  been  stated  in  the 
Senate  that  wages  have  risen  sixty  per  cent.,  and  prices 
ninety  per  cent;  but  "  prices"  is  a  term  of  great  width. 
The  men  themselves  believe  that  they  have  not  been 
losers,  and  no  argument  can  be  so  strong  as  that. 

My  first  afternoon  upon  Mount  Davidson  I  spent 
underground  in  the  Gould  and  Curry  Mine,  the 
wealthiest  and  largest  of  those  that  have  tapped  the 
famous  Comstock  Lode.  In  this  single  vein  of  silver 
lies  the  prosperity  not  only  of  the  city,  but  of  Nevada 
State ;  its  discovery  will  have  hastened  the  completion 
of  the  overland  railway  itself  by  several  years.  It  is 
owing  to  the  enormous  yield  of  this  one  lode  that  the 
United  States  now  stands  second  only  to  Mexico  as  a 
silver-producing  land.  In  one  year  Nevada  has  given 
the  world  as  much  silver  as  there  came  from  the  mines 
of  all  Peru. 

The  rise  of  Nevada  has  been  sudden.  I  was  shown 
in  Virginia  City  a  building  block  of  land  that  rents 


172  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

for  ten  times  what  it  cost  four  years  ago.  Nothing 
short  of  solid  silver  by  the  yard  would  have  brought 
twenty  thousand  men  to  live  upon  the  summit  of 
Mount  Davidson.  It  -is  easy  here  to  understand  the 
mad  rush  and  madder  speculation  that  took  place  at 
the  time  of  the  discovery.  Every  valley  in  the  Washoe 
flange  was  "  prospected,"  and  pronounced  paved  with 
silver;  every  mountain  was  a  solid  mass.  "Cities" 
were  laid  out,  and  town  lots  sold,  wherever  room  was 
afforded  by  a  flat  piece  of  ground.  The  publication  of 
the  Californian  newspapers  was  suspended,  as  writers, 
editors,  proprietors,  and  devils,  all  had  gone  with  the 
rush.  San  Francisco  went  clean  mad,  and  London 
and  Paris  were  not  far  behind.  Of  the  hundred 
"cities"  founded,  but  one  was  built;  of  the  thousand 
claims  registered,  but  a  hundred  were  taken  up  and 
worked;  of  the  companies  formed,  but  half  a  dozen 
ever  paid  a  dividend,  except  that  obtained  from  the 
sale  of  their  plant.  The  silver  of  which  the  whole 
base  of  Mount  Davidson  is  composed  has  not  been 
traced  in  the  surrounding  hills,  though  they  are 
covered  with  a  forest  of  posts,  marking  the  limits  of 
forgotten  "claims:" 

"James  Thompson,  130  feet  KE.  by  K" 

"Ezra  Williams,  130  feet  due  E.;" 
and  so  for  miles.  The  Gould  and  Curry  Company, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  said  to  have  once  paid  a  larger 
half-yearly  dividend  than  the  sum  of  the  original 
capital,  and  its  shares  have  been  quoted  at  1000  per 
cent.  Such  are  the  differences  of  a  hundred  yards. 

One  of  the  oddities  of  mining  life  is,  that  the  gold- 
diggers  profess  a  sublime  contempt  for  silver-miners 
and  their  trade.  A  Coloradan  going  West  was  asked 
in  Nevada  if  in  his  country  they  could  beat  the  Corn- 
stock  lode.  "Dear,  no!"  he  said.*  "The  boys  with 


VIRGINIA    CITY.  173 

us  are  plaguy  discouraged  jess  at  present."  The 
Nevadans  were  down  upon  the  word.  "  Discouraged, 
air  they!"  "Why,  yes!  They've  jess  found  they've 
got  ter  dig  through  three  feet  of  solid  silver  'fore  ever 
they  come  ter  gold." 

Some  of  the  Nevada  companies  have  curious  titles. 
"The  Union  Lumber  Association"  is  not  bad;  but 
"The  Segregated  Belcher  Mining  Enterprise  of  Gold 
Hill  District,  Storey  County,  Nevada  State,"  is  far 
before  it  as  an  advertising  name. 

In  a  real  "coach"  at  last— a  coach  with  windows 
and  a  roof — drawn  by  six  "mustangs,"  we  dashed 
down  Mount  Davidson  upon  a  real  road,  engineered 
with  grades  and  bridges — my  first  since  Junction  City. 
Through  the  Devil's  Gate  we  burst  out  upon  a  chaotic 
country.  For  a  hundred  miles  the  eye  ranged  over 
humps  and  bumps  of  every  size,  from  stones  to  mount- 
ains, but  no  level  ground,  no  field,  no  house,  no  tree, 
no  green.  Not  even  the  Sahara  so  thoroughly  de- 
serves the  name  of  "desert."  fn  Egypt  there  is  the 
oasis,  in  Arabia  here  and  there  a  date  and  a  sweet- 
water  well;  here  there  is  nothing,  not  even  earth. 
The  ground  is  soda,  and  the  water  and  air  are  full 
of  salt. 

This  road  is  notorious  for  the  depredations  of  the 
"road  agents,"  as  white  highwaymen  are  politely 
called,  red  or  yellow  robbers  being  still  "  darned 
thieves."  At  Desert  Wells,  the  coach  had  been 
robbed,  a  week  before  I  passed,  by  men  who  had 
first  tied  up  the  ranchmen,  and  taken  their  places  to 
receive  the  driver  and  passengers  when  they  arrived. 
The  prime  object  with  the  robbers  is  the  treasury  box 
of  "dust,"  but  they  generally  "go  through"  the  pas- 
sengers, by  way  of  pastime,  after  their  more  regular 
work  is  done.  As  to  firing,  they  have  a  rule — a 

15* 


174  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

simple  one.  If  a  passenger  shoots,  every  man  is 
killed.  It  need  not  be  said  that  the  armed  driver 
and  armed  guard  never  shoot;  they  know  their  busi- 
ness far  too  well. 

Close  here  we  came  on  hot  and  cold  springs  in  close 
conjunction,  flowing  almost  from  the  same  "  sink-hole" 
— the  original  twofold  springs,  I  hinted  to  our  driver, 
that  Poseidon  planted  in  the  Atlantic  isle.  He  said 
that  "some  one  of  that  name"  had  a  ranch  near  Car- 
son, so  I  "  concluded"  to  drop  Poseidon,  lest  I  should 
say  something  that  might  offend. 

From  Desert  Wells  the  alkali  grew  worse  and  worse, 
but  began  to  be  alleviated  at  the  ranches  by  irrigation 
of  the  throat  with  delicious  Californian  wine.  The 
plain  was  strewn  with  erratic  boulders,  and  here  and 
there  I  noticed  sharp  sand-cones,  like  those  of  the  Elk 
Mountain  country  in  Utah. 

At  last  we  dashed  into  the  "city"  named  after  the 
notorious  Kit  Carson,  of  which  an  old  inhabitant  has 
lately  said :  "  This  here  city  is  growing  plaguy  mean 
— there  was  only  one  man  shot  all  yesterday."  There 
was  what  is  here  styled  an  "  altercation"  a  day  or  two 
ago.  The  sheriff"  tried  to  arrest  a  man  in  broad  day- 
light in  the  single  street  which  Carson  boasts.  The 
result  was  that  each  fired  several  shots  at  the  other, 
and  that  both  were  badly  hurt. 

The  half-deserted  mining  village  and  wholly  ruined 
Mormon  settlement  stand  grimly  on  the  bare  rock, 
surrounded  by  weird-looking  depressions  of  the  earth, 
the  far-famed  "  sinks,"  the  very  bottom  of  the  plateau, 
and  goal  of  all  the  plateau  streams— in  summer  dry, 
and  spread  with  sheets  of  salt ;  in  winter  filled  with 
brine.  The  Sierra  Nevada  rises  like  a  wall  from  the 
salt  pools,  with  a  fringe  of  giant,  leafless  trees  hanging 
stiffly  from  its  heights — my  first  forest  since  I  left  the 


VIRGINIA    CITY.  175 

Missouri  bottoms.  The  trees  made  me  feel  that  I  was 
really  across  the  continent,  within  reach  at  least  of  the 
fogs  of  the  Pacific— on  "the  other  side;"  that  there 
was  still  rough,  cold  work  to  be  done  was  clear  from 
the  great  snow-fields  that  showed  through  the  pines 
with  that  threatening  blackness  that  the  purest  of 
snows  wear  in  the  evening  when  they  face  the  east. 

As  I  gazed  upon  the  tremendous  battlements  of  the 
Sierra,  I  not  only  ceased  to  marvel  that  for  three  hun- 
dred years  traffic  had  gone  round  by  Panama  rather 
than  through  these  frightful  obstacles,  but  even  won- 
dered that  they  should  be  surmounted  now.  In  this 
hideous  valley  it  was  that  the  California!!  immigrants- 
wintered  in  1848,  and  killed  their  Indian  guides  for 
food.  For  three  months  more  the  strongest  of  them 
lived  upon  the  bodies  of  those  who  died,  incapable  in 
their  weakness  of  making  good  their  foothold  upon  the 
slippery  snows  of  the  Sierra.  After  awhile,  some 
were  cannibals  by  choice ;  but  the  story  is  riot  one  that 
can  be  told. 

Galloping  up  the  gentle  grades  of  Johnson's  Pass,  we 
began  the  ascent  of  the  last  of  fifteen  great  mountain 
ranges  crossed  or  flanked  since  I  had  left  Great  Salt 
Lake  City.  The  thought  recalled  a  passage  of  arms 
that  had  occurred  at  Denver  between  Dixon  and  Gov- 
ernor Gilpin.  In  his  grand  enthusiastic  way,  the  gov- 
ernor, pointing  to  the  Cordillera,  said:  "Five  hundred 
snowy  ranges  lie  between  this  and  San  Francisco." 
"Peaks,"  said  Dixon.  "Ranges!"  thundered  Gilpin; 
I've  seen  them." 

Of  the  fifteen  greater  ranges  to  the  westward  of  Salt 
Lake,  eight  at  least  are  named  from  the  rivers  they 
contain,  or  are  wholly  nameless.  Trade  has  preceded 
survey;  the  country  is  not  yet  thoroughly  explored. 
The  six  paper  maps  by  which  I  traveled — the  best  and 


176  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

latest — differed  in  essential  points.  The  position  and 
length  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  itself  are  not  yet  accu- 
rately known;  the  height  of  Mount  Hood  has  been 
made  anything  between  nine  thousand  and  twenty 
thousand  feet;  the  southern  boundary  line  of  Nevada 
State  passes  through  untrodden  wilds.  A  rectification 
of  the  limits  of  California  and  Nevada  was  attempted 
no  great  time  ago,  and  the  head-waters  of  some  stream 
which  formed  a  starting-point  had  been  found  to  be 
erroneously  laid  down.  At  the  flourishing  young  city 
of  Aurora,  in  Esmeralda  County,  a  court  of  California 
was  sitting.  A  mounted  messenger  rode  up  at  great 
pace,  and,  throwing  his  bridle  round  the  stump,  dashed 
in  breathlessly,  shouting,  "  What's  this  here  court?" 
Being  told  that  it  was  a  Californian  court,  he  said, 
"Wall,  thet's  all  wrong:  this  here's  Nevada.  We've 
been  and  rectified  this  boundary,  an'  California's  a  good 
ten  mile  off  here."  "Wall,  Mr.  Judge,  I  move  this 
court  adjourn,"  said  the  plaintiff's  counsel.  "How 
can  a  court  adjourn  thet's  not  a  court?"  replied  the 
judge.  "Guess  I'll  go."  And  off  he  went.  So,  if  the 
court  of  Aurora  was  a  court,  it  must  be  sitting  now. 

The  coaching  on  this  line  is  beyond  comparison  the 
best  the  world  can  show.  Drawn  by  six  half-bred 
mustangs,  driven  by  whips  of  the  fame  of  the  Hank 
Monk  "who  drove  Greeley,"the  mails  and  passengers 
have  been  conveyed  from  Virginia  City  to  the  rail  at 
Placerville,  154  miles,  in  15  hours  and  20  minutes,  in- 
cluding a  stoppage  of  half  an  hour  for  supper,  and  six- 
teen shorter  stays  to  change  horses.  In  this  distance, 
the  Sierra  Nevada  has  to  be  traversed  in  a  rapid  rise  of 
three  thousand  feet,  a  fall  of  a  thousand  feet,  another 
rise  of  the  same,  and  then  a  descent  of  five  thousand 
feet  on  the  Californian  side. 

Before  the  road  was  made,  the  passage  was  one  of 


VIRGINIA    CITY.  177 

extraordinary  difficulty.  A  wagon  once  started,  they 
say,  from  Folsom,  bearing  "Carson  or  bust"  in  large 
letters  upon  the  tilt.  After  ten  days,  it  returned  lamely 
enough,  with  four  of  the  twelve  oxen  gone,  and  bear- 
ing the  label  "Busted." 

When  we  were  nearing  Hank  Monk's  "piece,"  I 
became  impatient  to  see  the  hero  of  the  famous  ride. 
What  was  my  disgust  when  the  driver  of  the  earlier 
portion  of  the  road  appeared  again  upon  the  box  in 
charge  of  six  magnificent  iron-grays.  The  peremptory 
cry  of  "  All  aboard"  brought  me  without  remonstrance 
to  the  coach,  but  I  took  care  to  get  upon  the  box,  al- 
though, as  we  were  starting  before  the  break  of  day, 
the  frost  was  terrible.  To  my  relief,  when  I  inquired 
after  Hank,  the  driver  said  that  he  was  at  a  ball  at  a 
timber  ranch  in  the  forest  "  six  mile  on."  At  early 
light  we  reached  the  spot — the  summit  of  the  more 
eastern  of  the  twin  ranges  of  the  Sierra.  Out  came 
Hank,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  half  dozen  men  and 
women  of  the  timber  ranch  who  formed  the  "  ball," 
wrapped  up  to  the  eyes  in  furs,  and  took  the  reins 
without  a  word.  For  miles  he  drove  steadily  arid 
moodily  along.  I  knew  these  drivers  too  well  to  ven- 
ture upon  speaking  first  when  they  were  in  the  sulks ; 
at  last,  however,  I  lost  all  patience,  and  silently  offered 
him  a  cigar.  He  took  it  without  thanking  me,  but 
after  a  few  minutes  said  :  "  Thet  last  driver,  how  did 
he  drive  ?"  I  made  some  shuffling  answer,  when  he 
cut  in:  "Drove  as  ef  he  were  skeert;  and  so  he  was. 
Look  at  them  mustangs.  Yoo — ou  !"  As  he  yelled, 
the  horses  started  at  what  out  here  they  style  "  the 
run  ;"  and  when,  after  ten  minutes,  he  pulled  up,  we 
must  have  done  three  miles,  round  most  violent  and 
narrow  turns,  with  only  the  bare  precipice  at  the  side, 
and  a  fall  of  often  a  hundred  feet  to  the  stream  at  the 


178  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

bottom  of  the  ravine — the  Simplon  without  its  wall. 
Dropping  into  the  talking  mood,  he  asked  me  the  usual 
questions  as  to  my  business,  and  whither  I  was  bound. 
"When  I  told  him  I  thought  of  visiting  Australia,  he 
said,  "D'you  tell  now!  Jess  give  my  love — at  Bendigo 
— to  Gumption  Dick."  Not  another  word  about  Aus- 
tralia or  Gumption  Dick  could  I  draw  from  him.  I 
asked  at  Bendigo  for  Dick ;  but  not  even  the  officer  in 
command  of  the  police  had  ever  heard  of  Hank  Monk's 
friend. 

The  sun  rose  as  we  dashed  through  the  grand  land- 
scapes of  Lake  Tahoe.  On  we  went,  through  gloomy 
snow-drifts  and  still  sadder  forests  of  gigantic  pines 
nearly  three  hundred  feet  in  height,  and  down  the  can- 
yon of  the  American  River  from  the  second  range. 
Suddenly  we  left  the  snows,  and  burst  through  the 
pine  woods  into  an  open  scene.  From  gloom  there 
was  a  change  to  light ;  from  somber  green  to  glowing 
red  and  gold.  The  trees,  no  longer  hung  with  icicles, 
were  draped  with  Spanish  moss.  In  ten  yards  we  had 
come  from  winter  into  summer.  Alkali  was  left  be- 
hind forever ;  we  were  in  El  Dorado,  on  the  Pacific 
shores — in  sunny,  dreamy  California. 


EL  DORADO.  179 


CHAPTER    XX. 

EL    DORADO. 

THE  city  of  the  high  priest  clothed  in  rohes  of  gold 
figures  largely  in  the  story  of  Spanish  discovery  in 
America.  The  hardy  soldiers  who  crossed  the  Atlantic 
in  caravels  and  cockboats,  and  toiled  in  leathern  doub- 
lets and  plate  armor  through  the  jungle  swamp  of 
Panama,  were  lured  on  through  years  of  plague  and 
famine  by  the  dream  of  a  country  whose  rivers  flowed 
with  gold.  Diego  de  Mendoza  found  the  land  in  1532, 
but  it  was  not  till  January,  1848,  that  James  Marshall 
washed  the  golden  sands  of  El  Dorado. 

The  Spaniards  were  not  the  first  to  place  the  earthly 
paradise  in  America.  Not  to  speak  of  New  Atlantis, 
the  Canadian  Indians  have  never  ceased  to  hand  down 
to  their  sons  'a  legend  of  western  abodes  of  bliss,  to 
which  their  souls  journey  after  death,  through  frightful 
glens  and  forests.  In  their  mystic  chants  they  describe 
minutely  the  obstacles  over  which  the  souls  must  toil 
to  reach  the  regions  of  perpetual  spring.  These  stories 
are  no  mere  dreams,  but  records  of  the  great  Indian 
migration  from  the  West:  the  liquid-eyed  Hurons,  not 
sprung  from  the  Canadian  snows,  may  be  California!! 
if  they  are  not  Malay,  the  Pacific  shores  their  happy 
hunting-ground,  the  climate  of  Los  Angeles  their 
never-ending  spring. 

The  names  The  Golden  State  and  El  Dorado  are 
doubly  applicable  to  California;  her  light  and  land- 
scape, as  well  as  her  soil,  are  golden.  Here,  on  the 


180  GEEATEE    BEITAIN. 

Pacific  side,  nature  wears  a  robe  of  deep  rich  yellow: 
even  the  distant  hills,  no  longer  purple,  are  wrapt  in 
golden  haze.  ~No  more  cliffs  and  canyons — all  is 
rounded,  soft,  and  warm.  The  Sierra,  which  faces 
eastward,  with  four  thousand  feet  of  wall-like  rock,  on 
the  west  descends  gently  in  vine-clad  slopes  into  the 
California!!  vales,  and  trends  away  in  spurs  toward  the 
sea.  The  scenery  of  the  Nevada  side  was  weird,  but 
these  western  foot-hills  are  unlike  anything  in  the 
world.  Drake,  who  never  left  the  Pacific  shores, 
named  the  country  New  Albion,  from  the  whiteness 
of  a  headland  on  the  coast ;  but  the  first  viceroys  were 
less  ridiculously  misled  by  patriotic  vanity  when  they 
christened  it  New  Spain. 

In  the  warm  dry  sunlight,  we  rolled  down  hills  of 
rich  red  loam,  and  through  forests  of  noble  redwood 
— the  Sequoia  sempervirens,  brother  to  the  Sequoia  gigan- 
tea,  or  Welliugtonia  of  our  lawns.  Dashing  at  full  gallop 
through  the  American  River,  just  below  its  falls,  where, 
in  1848,  the  Mormons  first  dug  that  California!!  gold 
which  in  the  interests  of  their  church  they  had  better 
have  let  alone,  we  came  upon  great  gangs  of  Indians 
working  by  proxy  upon  the  Continental  railroad.  The 
Indian's  plan  for  living  happily  is  a  simple  one:  he  sits 
and  smokes  in  silence  while  his  women  work,  and  he 
thus  lives  upon  the  earnings  of  the  squaws.  Unlike 
a  Mormon  patriarch,  he  contrives  that  polygamy  shall 
pay,  and  says  with  the  New  Zealand  Maori:  "A  man 
with  one  wife  may  starve,  but  a  man  with  many  wives 
grows  fat."  These  fellows  were  Shosh one's  from  the 
other  side  of  the  plateau;  for  the  Pacific  Indians,  who 
are  black,  not  red,  will  not  even  force  their  wives  to 
work,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Western  men,  is 
the  ultimate  form  of  degradation  in  a  race.  Higher 
up  the  hills,  Chinamen  alone  are  employed ;  but  their 


VIEW   ON  THE   AMERICAN   RIVER-THE   PLACE  WHERE   GOLD  WAS   FIRST   FOUND.-P.  180 


EL   DORADO.  181 

labor  is  too  costly  to  be  thrown  away  upon  the  easier 
work. 

In  El  Dorado  City  we  stayed  not  long  enough  for 
the  exploration  of  the  once  famous  surface  gold  mines, 
now  forming  one  long  vineyard,  but,  rolling  on,  were 
soon  among  the  tents  of  Placerville,  which  had  been 
swept  with  fire  a  few  months  before.  All  these  valley 
diggings  have  been  deserted  for  deep-sinking — not 
that  they  are  exhausted  yet,  but  that  the  yield  has 
ceased  to  be  sufficient  to  tempt  the  gambling  digger. 
The  men  who  lived  in  Placerville  and  made  it  in- 
famous throughout  the  world  some  years  ago  are  sc$t- 
tered  now  through  Nevada,  Arizona,  Montana,  and 
the  Frazer  country,  and  Chinamen  and  Digger  Indians 
have  the  old  workings  to  themselves,  settling  their 
rights  as  against  each  other  by  daily  battle  and  per- 
petual feud.  The  Digger  Indians  are  the  most  de- 
graded of  all  the  aborigines  of  North  America — out- 
casts from  the  other  tribes — men  under  a  ban — "  tapu," 
as  their  Maori  cousins  say — weaponless,  naked  savages 
who  live  on  roots,  and  pester  the  industrious  Chinese. 

It  is  not  with  all  their  foes  that  the  yellow  men  can 
cope  so  easily.  In  a  tiny  Chinese  theater  in  their 
camp  near  Placerville,  I  saw  a  farce  which  to  the  re- 
mainder of  the  audience  was  no  doubt  a  very  solemn 
drama,  in  which  the  adventures  of  two  Celestials  on 
the  diggings  were  given  to  the  world.  The  only  scene 
in  which  the  pantomime  was  sufficiently  clear  for  me 
to  read  it  without  the  possibility  of  error  was  one  in 
which  a  white  man — "Melican  man" — came  to  ask 
for  taxes.  The  Chinamen  had  paid  their  taxes  once 
before,  but  the  fellow  said  that  didn't  matter.  The 
yellow  men  consulted  together,  and  at  last  agreed  that 
the  stranger  was  a  humbug,  so  the  play  ended  with 
a  big  fight,  in  which  they  drove  him  off  their  ground. 

16 


182  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

A  Chinaman  played  the  over-'cute  Yankee,  and  did 
it  well. 

Perhaps  the  tax-collectors  in  the  remoter  districts 
of  the  States  count  on  the  Chinese  to  make  up  the 
deficiencies  in  their  accounts  caused  by  the  non-pay- 
ment of  their  taxes  by  the  whites ;  for  even  in  these 
days  of  comparative  quiet  and  civilization,  taxes  are 
not  gathered  to  their  full  amount  in  any  of  the  Terri- 
tories, and  the  justice  of  the  collector  is  in  Montana 
tempered  by  many  a  threat  of  instant  lynching  if  he 
proceeds  with  his  assessment.  Even  in  Utah,  the 
returns  are  far  from  satisfactory:  the  three  great 
merchants  of  Salt  Lake  City  should,  if  their  incomes 
are  correctly  stated,  contribute  a  heavier  sum  than 
that  returned  for  the  whole  of  the  population  of  the 
Territory. 

The  white  diggers  who  preceded  the  Chinese  have 
left  their  traces  in  the  names  of  lodes  and  places. 
There  is  no  town  in  California  with  such  a  title  as  the 
Coloradan  City  of  Buckskin  Joe,  but  Yankee  Jim 
comes  near  it.  Placerville  itself  was  formerly  known 
as  Hangtown,  on  account  of  its  being  the  city  in  which 
"Iynch4aw  was  inaugurated."  Dead  Shot  Flat  is  not 
far  from  here,  and  within  easy  distance  are  Hell's  De- 
light, Jackass  Gulch,  and  Loafer's  Hill.  The  once 
famous  Plug-ugly  Gulch  has  now  another  name;  but 
of  Chucklehead  Diggings  and  Puppy  town  I  could  not 
find  the  whereabouts  in  my  walks  and  rides.  Grave- 
yard Canyon,  Gospel  Gulch,  and  Paint-pot  Hill  are 
other  Californian  names.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
English  and  Spanish  names  will  live  unmutilated  in 
California  and  Nevada,  to  hand  down  in  liquid  syl- 
lables the  history  of  a  half-forgotten  conquest,  an 
already  perished  race.  San  Francisco  has  become 
"Frisco"  in  speech  if  not  on  paper,  and  Sacramento 


EL   DORADO.  183 

will  hardly  bear  the  wear  and  tear  of  Californian  life; 
but  the  use  of  the  Spanish  tongue  has  spread  among 
the  Americans  who  have  dealings  with  the  Mexican 
country  folk  of  California  State,  and,  except  in  mining 
districts,  the  local  names  will  stand. 

It  is  not  places  only  that  have  strange  designations 
in  America.  Out  of  the  Puritan  fashion  of  naming 
children  from  the  Old  Testament  patriarchs  has  grown, 
by  a  sort  of  recoil,  the  custom  of  following  the  heroes 
of  the  classics,  and  when  they  fail,  inventing  strange 
titles  for  children.  Mahonri  Cahoon  lives  in  Salt  Lake 
City ;  Attila  Harding  was  secretary  to  one  of  the  gov- 
ernors of  Utah  ;  Michigan  University  has  for  president 
Erastus  Haven ;  for  superintendent,  Oramel  Hosford ; 
for  professors,  Abram  Sanger,  Silas  Douglas,  Moses 
Gunn,  Zina  Pitcher,  Alonzo  Pitman,  De  Volson  Wood, 
Lucius  Chapin,  and  Corydon  Ford.  Luman  Stevens, 
Bolivar  Barnurn,  Wyllys  Ransom,  Ozora  Stearnes,  and 
Buel  Derby  were  Michigan  officers  during  the  war,  and 
Epaphroditus  Ransom  was  formerly  governor  of  the 
State.  Theron  Rockwell,  Gershon  Weston,  and  Bela 
Kellogg  are  well-known  politicians  in  Massachusetts, 
and  Colonel  Liberty  Billings  is  equally  prominent  in 
Florida.  In  New  England  school-lists  it  is  hard  to 
pick  boys  from  girls.  Who  shall  tell  the  sex  of  Lois 
Lombard,  Asahel  Morton,  Ginery  French,  Royal  Mil- 
ler, Thankful  Poyne  ?  A  Chicago  man,  who  was 
lynched  in  Central  Illinois  while  I  was  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, was  named  Alonza  Tibbets.  Eliphalet  Ar- 
nould  and  Yelenus  Sherman  are  ranchmen  on  the 
overland  road ;  Sereno  Burt  is  an  editor  in  Montana ; 
Persis  Boynton  a  merchant  in  Chicago.  Zelotes  Terrv, 
Datus  Darner,  Zeryiah  Rainforth,  Barzellai  Stauton, 
Sardis  Clark,  Ozias  Williams,  Xenas  Phelps,  Converse 
Hopkins,  and  Hirodshai  Blake  are  names  with  which  I 


184  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

have  met.  Zilpah,  Huldah,  Nabby,  Basetha,  Minne- 
sota, and  Semantha  are  Few  England  ladies;  while  one 
gentleman  of  Springfield,  lately  married,  caught  a  Tar- 
tia.  One  of  the  earliest  enemies  of  the  Mormons  was 
Palatiah  Allen ;  one  of  their  first  converts  Preserved 
Harris.  Taking  the  pedigree  of  Joe  Smith,  the  Mor- 
mon prophet,  as  that  of  a  representative  New  England 
family,  we  shall  find  that  his  aunts  were  Lovisa  and 
Lovina  Mack,  Dolly  Smith,  Eunice  and  Miranda 
Pearce ;  his  uncles,  Royal,  Ira,  and  Bushrod  Smith. 
His  grandfather's  name  was  Asael ;  of  his  great  aunts 
one  was  Hephzibah,  another  Hypsebeth,  and  another 
Yasta.  The  prophet's  eldest  brother's  name  was  Al- 
vin  ;  his  youngest  Don  Carlos  ;  his  sister,  Sophronia ; 
and  his  sister-in-law,  Jerusha  Smith ;  while  a  nephew 
was  christened  Chilon.  One  of  the  nieces  was  Levira, 
and  another  Rizpah.  The  first  wife  of  George  A. 
Smith,  the  prophet's  cousin,  is  Bathsheba,  and  his  eld- 
est daughter  also  bears  this  name. 

In  the  smaller  towns  near  Placerville,  there  is  still  a 
wide  field  for  the  discovery  of  character  as  well  as 
gold ;  but  eccentricity  among  the  diggers  here  seems 
chiefly  to  waste  itself  on  food.  The  luxury  of  this 
Pacific  country  is  amazing.  The  restaurants  and  cafe's 
of  each  petty  digging-town  put  forth  bills- of-fare  which 
the  "  Trios  Freres"  could  not  equal  for  ingenuity ; 
wine  lists  such  as  Delmonico's  cannot  beat.  The  facili- 
ties are  great:  except  in  the  far  interior  or  on  the  hills, 
one  even  spring  reigns  unchangeably — summer  in  all 
except  the  heat ;  every  fruit  and  vegetable  of  the  world 
is  perpetually  in  season.  Fruit  is  not  named  in  the 
hotel  bills-of-fare,  but  all  the  day  long  there  are  piled 
in  strange  confusion  on  the  tables,  Mission  grapes,  the 
Californian  Bartlet  pears,  Empire  apples  from  Oregon, 
melons  —  English,  Spanish,  American  and  Musk; 


EL   DORADO.  185 

peaches,  nectarines,  and  fresh  almonds.  All  comers 
may  help  themselves,  and  wash  down  the  fruit  with 
excellent  Californian-made  Sauterne.  If  dancing,  gam- 
bling, drinking,  and  still  shorter  cuts  to  the  devil  have 
their  votaries  among  the  diggers,  there  is  no  employ- 
ment upon  which  they  so-  freely  spend  their  cash  as  on 
dishes  cunningly  prepared  by  cooks — Chinese,  Italian, 
Bordelais — who  follow  every  "rush."  After  the  doc- 
tor and  the  coroner,  no  one  makes  money  at  the  dig- 
gings like  the  cook.  The  dishes  smell  of  the  Califor- 
nian  soil ;  baked  rock-cod  a  la  Buena  Vista,  broiled 
Californian  quail  with  Russian  River  bacon,  Sacra- 
mento snipes  on  toast,  Oregon  ham  with  champagne 
sauce,  and  a  dozen  other  toothsome  things — these  were 
the  dishes  on  the  Placerville  bill-of-fare  in  an  hotel 
which  had  escaped  the  fire,  but  whose  only  guests  were 
diggers  and  their  friends.  A  few  Atlantic  States  dishes 
were  down  upon  the  list :  hominy,  cod  chowder — 
hardly  equal,  I  fear,  to  that  of  Salem — sassafras  candy, 
and  squash  tart,  but  never  a  mention  of  pork  and 
molasses,  dear  to  the  Massachusetts  boy.  All  these 
good  things  the  diggers,  when  "dirt  is  plenty," 
moisten  with  Clicquot,  or  Heidsick  cabinet ;  when  re- 
turns are  small,  with  their  excellent  Sonoma  wine. 

Even  earthquakes  fail  to  interrupt  the  triumphs  of 
the  cooks.  The  last  "  bad  shake"  was  fourteen  days 
ago,  but  it  is  forgotten  in  the  joy  called  forth  by  the 
discovery  of  a  thirteenth  way  to  cook  fresh  oysters, 
which  are  brought  here  from  the  coast  by  train. 
There  is  still  a  something  in  Placerville  that  smacks 
of  the  time  when  tin-tacks  were  selling  for  their  weight 
in  gold. 

Wandering  through  the  only  remaining  street  of 
Placerville  before  I  left  for  the  Southern  country,  I 
saw  that  grapes  were  marked  " three  cents  a  pound;" 

16* 


186  OEEATER   BRITAIN. 

but  as  the  lowest  coin  known  on  the  Pacific  shores  is 
the  ten-cent  bit,  the  price  exists  but  upon  paper.  Three 
pounds  of  grapes,  however,  for  "a  bit"  is  a  practica- 
ble purchase,  in  which  I  indulged  when  starting  on  my 
journey  South  :  in  the  towns  you  have  always  the  hotel 
supply.  If  the  value  of  the  smallest  coin  be  a  test  of 
the  prosperity  of  a  country,  California  must  stand 
high.  Not  only  is  nothing  less  than  the  bit,  or  five- 
pence,  known,  but  when  fivepence  is  deducted  from  a 
"quarter,"  or  shilling,  fivepence  is  all  you  get  or  give 
for  change — a  gain  or  loss  upon  which  Californian  shop- 
keepers look  with  profound  indifference. 

Hearing  a  greater  jingling  of  glasses  from  one  bar- 
room than  from  all  the  other  hundred  whisky-shops 
of  Placerville,  I  turned  into  it  to  seek  the  cause,  and 
found  a  Vermonter  lecturing  on  Lincoln  and  the  war 
to  an  audience  of  some  fifty  diggers.  The  lecturer  and 
bar-keeper  stood  together  within  the  sacred  inclosure, 
the  one  mixing  his  drinks,  while  the  other  rounded  off' 
his  periods  in  the  inflated  Western  style.  The  au- 
dience was  critical  and  cold  till  near  the  close  of  the 
oration,  when  the  "  corpse  revivers"  they  were  drink- 
ing seemed  to  take  effect,  and  to  be  at  the  bottom 
of  the  stentorian  shout,  "  Thet's  bully,"  with  which 
the.  peroration  was  rewarded.  The  Vermonter  told 
me  that  he  had  come  round  from  Panama,  and  was  on 
his  way  to  Austin,  as  Placerville  was  "played  out" 
since  its  "claims"  had  "fizzled." 

They  have  no  lecture-room  here  at  present,  as  it 
seems  ;  but  that  there  •  are  churches,  however  small, 
appears  from  a  paragraph  in  the  Placerville  news-sheet 
of  to-day,  which  chronicles  the  removal  of  a  Methodist 
meeting-house  from  Block  A  to  Block  C,  vice  a  Cath- 
olic chapel  retired,  "  having  obtained  a  superior  loca- 
tion." 


EL  DORADO.  187 

A  few  days  were  all  that  I  could  spend  in  the  val- 
leys that  lie  between  the  Sierra  and  the  Contra  Costa 
Range,  basking  in  a  rich  sunlight,  and  unsurpassed  in 
the  world  for  climate,  scenery,  and  soil.  This  single 
State — one  of  forty-five — has  twice  the  area  of  Great 
Britain,  the  most  fertile  of  known  soils,  and  the  sun 
and  sea-breeze  of  Greece.  Western  rhapsodies  are  the 
expression  of  the  intoxication  produced  by  such  a  spec- 
tacle ;  but  they  are  outdone  by  facts. 

For  mere  charm  to  the  eye,  it  is  hard  to  give  the 
palm  between  the  cracks  and  canyons  of  the  Sierra 
and  the  softer  vales  of  the  Coast  Range,  where  the 
hot  sun  is  tempered  by  the  cool  Pacific  breeze,  and 
thunder  and  lightning  are  unknown.  To  one  coming 
from  the  wilds  of  the  Carson  Desert  and  of  Mirage 
Plains,  the  more  sensuous  beauty  of  the  lower  dells 
has  for  the  eye  the  relief  that  travelers  from  the  coast 
must  seek  in  the  loftier  heights  and  precipices  of  the 
Yose'mite.  The  oak-filled  valleys  of  the  Contra  Costa 
Range  have  all  the  pensive  repose  of  the  sheltered 
vales  that  lie  between  the  Apennines  and  the  Adriatic 
from  Rimini  to  Ancona ;  but  California  has  the  advant- 
age in  her  skies.  Italy  has  the  blue,  but  not  the  golden 
haze. 

Nothing  can  be  more  singular  than  the  variety  of 
beauty  that  lies  hid  in  these  Pacific  slopes;  all  that  is 
best  in  Canada  and  the  Eastern  States  finds  more  than 
its  equal  here.  The  terrible  grandeur  of  Cape  Trinite* 
on  the  Saguenay,  and  the  panorama  of  loveliness  from 
the  terrace  at  Quebec,  are  alike  outdone. 

Americans  certainly  need  not  go  to  Europe  to  find 
scenery;  but  neither  need  they  go  to  California,  or  even 
Colorado.  Those  who  tell  us  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  natural  beauty  west  of  the  Atlantic  can 
scarcely  know  the  Eastern,  while  they  ignore  the  West- 


188  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

era  and  Central  States.  The  world  can  show  few 
scenes  more  winning  than  Israel's  River  Valley  in  the 
White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  or  North  Con- 
way  in  the  southern  slopes  of  the  same  range.  Nothing 
can  be  more  full  of  grandeur  than  the  passage  of  the 
James  at  Balcony  Falls,  where  the  river  rushes  through 
a  crack  in  the  Appalachian  chain ;  the  wilderness  of 
Northern  New  York  is  unequaled  of  its  kind,  and 
there  are  delicious  landscapes  in  the  Adirondacks.  As 
for  river  scenery,  the  Hudson  is  grander  than  the 
Rhine;  the  Susquehauna  is  lovelier  than  the  Meuse; 
the  Schuylkill  prettier  than  the  Seine;  the  Mohawk 
more  enchanting  than  the  Dart.  Of  the  rivers  of 
North  Europe,  the  Neckar  alone  is  not  beaten  in  the 
States. 

Americans  admit  that  their  scenery  is  fine,  but  pre- 
tend that  it  is  wholly  wanting  in  the  interest  that  his- 
toric memories  bestow.  So-called  republicans  affect 
to  find  a  charm  in  Bishop  Hatto's  Tower  which  is 
wanting  in  Irviug's  "Sunnyside;"  the  ten  thousand  vir- 
gins of  Cologne  live  in  their  fancy,  while  Constitution 
Island  and  Fort  Washington  are  forgotten  names. 
Americans  or  Britishers,  we  Saxons  are  all  alike — a 
wandering,  discontented  race ;  we  go  4000  miles  to  find 
us  Sleepy  Hollow,  or  Kilian  Van  Rensselaer's  Castle, 
or  Hiawatha's  great  red  pipe-stone  quarry;  and  the 
Americans,  who  live  in  the  castle,  picnic  yearly  in  the 
Hollow,  and  flood  the  quarry  for  a  skating-rink,  come 
here  to  England  to  visit  Burns's  house,  or  to  sit  in  Pope's 
arm-chair. 

Down  South  I  saw  clearly  the  truth  of  a  thought  that 
struck  me  before  I  had  been  ten  minutes  west  of  the 
Sierra  Pass.  California  is  Saxon  only  in  the  looks  and 
language  of  the  people  of  its  towns.  In  Pennsylvania, 
you  may  sometimes  fancy  yourself  in  Sussex;  while  in 


EL   DORADO.  189 

New  England,  you  seem  only  to  be  in  some  part  of 
Europe  that  you  have  never  happened  to  light  upon 
before ;  in  California,  you  are  at  last  in  a  new  world. 
The  hills  are  weirdly  peaked  or  flattened,  the  skies  are 
new,  the  birds  and  plants  are  new;  the  atmosphere, 
crisp  though  warm,  is  unlike  any  in  the  world  but  that 
of  South  Australia.  It  will  be  strange  if  the  Pacific 
coast  does  not  produce  a  new  school  of  Saxon  poets — 
painters  it  has  already  given  to  the  world. 

Returning  to  Placerville,  after  an  eventless  explora- 
tion of  the  exquisite  scenery  to  the  south,  I  took  the 
railway  once  again,  for  the  first  time  since  I  had  left 
Manhattan  City — 1800  miles  away — and  was  soon  in 
Sacramento,  the  State  capital,  now  recovering  slowly 
from  the  flood  of  1862.  Near  the  city  I  made  out  Oak 
Grove — famed  for  duels  between  well-known  Califor- 
nians.  Here  it  was  that  General  Denver,  State  Sena- 
tor, shot  Mr.  Gilbert,  the  representative  in  Congress, 
in  a  duel  fought  with  rifles.  Here,  too,  it  was  that 
Mr.  Thomas,  district  attorney  for  Placer  County,  killed 
Dr.  Dickson,  of  the  Marine  Hospital,  in  a  duel  with 
pistols  in  1854.  Records  of  duels  form  a  serious  part 
of  the  State  history.  At  Lone  Mountain  Cemetery 
near  San  Francisco,  there  is  a  great  marble  monument 
to  the  Hon.  David  Broderick,  shot  by  Chief  Justice 
Terry,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  in  1859. 

A  few  hours'  quiet  steaming  in  the  sunlight  down 
the  Sacramento  River,  past  Rio  Vista  and  Montezuma, 
through  the  gap  in  the  Contra  Costa  Range,  at  which 
the  grand  volcanic  peak  of  Monte  Diablo  stands  sen- 
tinel watching  over  the  Martinez  Straits,  and  there 
opened  to  the  south  and  west  a  vast  mountain-sur- 
rounded bay.  Volumes  of  cloud  were  rolling  in  un- 
ceasingly from  the  ocean,  through  the  Golden  Gate, 
past  the  fortified  island  of  Alcatras,  and  spending 


190  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

themselves  in  the  opposite  shores  of  San  Rafael,  Be- 
nicia,  and  Yallejo.  At  last  I  was  across  the  continent, 
and  face  to  face  with  the  Pacific. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

LYNCH    LAW. 

"  CALIFORNIANS  are  called  the  scum  of  the  earth,  yet 
their  great  city  is  the  best  policed  in  the  world,"  said 
a  New  York  friend  to  me,  when  he  heard  that  I 
thought  of  crossing  the  continent  to  Sa'n  Francisco. 

"  Them  New  Yorkers  is  a  sight  too  fond  of  looking 
after  other  people's  morals,"  replied  an  old  "Forty- 
niner,"  to  whom  I  repeated  this  phrase,  having  first 
toned  it  down  however.  " Still,"  he  went  on,  "our 
history's  baddish,  but  it  ain't  for  us  to  play  showman 
to  our  own  worst  pints : — let  every  man  skin  his  own 
skunk !" 

The  story  of  the  early  days  of  San  Francisco,  as  to 
which  my  curiosity  was  thus  excited,  is  so  curious  an 
instance  of  the  development  of  an  English  community 
under  the  most  inauspicious  circumstances,  that  the 
whole  time  which  I  spent  in  the  city  itself  I  devoted 
to  hearing  the  tale  from  those  who  knew  the  actors. 
Not  only  is  the  history  of  the  two  Vigilance  Commit- 
tees in  itself  characteristic,  but  it  works  in  with  what 
I  had  gathered  in  Kansas,  and  Illinois,  and  Colorado 
as  to  the  operation  of  the  claim-clubs ;  and  the  stories, 
taken  together,  form  a  typical  picture  of  the  rise  of  a 
New  English  country. 


LYNCH  LAW.  191 

* 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  1848  brought  down  on 
.luckless  California  the  idle,  the  reckless,  the  vaga- 
bonds first  of  Polynesia,  then  of  all  the  world.  Street 
fighting,  public  gaming,  masked  balls  given  by  un- 
known women  and  paid  for  nobody  knew  how,  but 
attended  by  governor,  supervisors,  and  alcalde — all 
these  were  minor  matters  by  the  side  of  the  general 
undefined  ruffianism  of  the  place.  Before  the  end  of 
1849,  San  Francisco  presented  on  a  gigantic  scale 
much  the  same  appearance  that  Helena  in  Montana 
wears  in  1866. 

Desperadoes  poured  in  from  all  sides^  the  best  of 
the  bad  flocking  off  to  the  mines,  while  the  worst 
among  the  villains — those  who  lacked  energy  as  well 
as  moral  sense — remained  in  the  city,  to  raise  by 
thieving  or  in  the  gambling-booth  the  "pile"  that 
they  were  too  indolent  to  earn  by  pick  and  pan. 
Hundreds  of  "emancipists"  from  Sydney,  "old  lags" 
from  Norfolk  Island,  the  pick  of  the  criminals  of  Eng- 
land, still  further  trained  and  confirmed  in  vice  and 
crime  by  the  experiences  of  Macquarie  Harbor  and 
Port  Arthur,  rushed  to  San  Francisco  to  continue  a 
career  which  the  vigilance  gf  the  police  made  hope- 
less in  Tasmania  arid  E"ew  South  Wales.  The  floating 
vice  of  the  Pacific  ports  of  South  America  soon  gath- 
ered to  a  spot  where  there  were  not  only  men  to 
fleece,  but  men  who,  being  fleeced,  could  pay.  The 
police  were  necessarily  few,  for,  appoint  a  man  to-day, 
and  to-morrow  he  was  gone  to  the  placers  with  some 
new  friend;  those  who  could  be  prevailed  upon  to 
remain  a  fortnight  in  the  force  were  accessible  to 
bribes  from  the  men  they  were  set  to  watch.  They 
themselves  admitted  their  inaction,  but  ascribed  it  to 
the  continual  change  of  place  among  the  criminals, 
which  prevented  the  slightest  knowledge  of  their 


192  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

characters  and  haunts.  The  Australian  jail -birds 
formed  a  quarter  known  as  "Sydney  Town,"' which 
soon  became  what  the  Bay  of  Islands  had  been  ten 
years  before — the  Alsatia  of  the  Pacific.  In  spite  of 
daily  murders,  not  a  single  criminal  was  hanged. 

The  ruffians  did  not  all  agree:  there  were  jealousies 
among  the  various  bands;  feuds  between  the  Aus- 
tralians and  Chilians ;  between  the  Mexicans  and  the 
New  Yorkers.  Under  the  various  names  of  "Hounds,'* 
"Regulators,"  "Sydney  ducks,"  and  "Sydney  coves," 
the  English  convict  party  organized  themselves  in  op- 
position to  the  Chilenos  as  well  as  to  the  police  and 
law-abiding  citizens.  Gangs  of  villains,  whose  sole 
bond  of  union  was  robbery  or  murder,  marched, 
armed  with  bludgeons  and  revolvers,  every  Sunday 
afternoon,  to  the  sound  of  music,  unhindered  through 
the  streets,  professing  that  they  were  "guardians  of 
the  community"  against  the  Spaniards,  Mexicans,  and 
South  Americans. 

At  last  a  movement  took  place  among  the  mer- 
chants and  reputable  inhabitants  which  resulted  in 
the  break-up  of  the  Australian  gangs.  By  an  upris- 
ing of  the  American  citizens  of  San  Francisco,  in 
response  to  a  proclamation  by  T.  M.  Leavenworth, 
the  alcalde,  twenty  of  the  most  notorious  among  the 
"Hounds"  were  seized  and  shipped  to  China:  it  is 
believed  that  some  were  taken  south  in  irons,  and 
landed  near  Cape  Horn.  "Anywhere  so  that  they 
could  not  come  back,"  as  my  informant  said. 

For  a  week  or  two  things  went  well,  but  a  fresh  im- 
pour  of  rogues  and  villains  soon  swamped  the  volun- 
teer police  by  sheer  force  of  numbers ;  and  in  Febru- 
ary, 1851,  occurred  an  instance  of  united  action  among 
the  citizens  which  is  noticeable  as  the  forerunner  of 
the  Vigilance  Committees.  A  Mr.  Jansen  had  been 


LYNCH  LAW.  193 

stunned  by  a  blow  from  a  slung-shot,  and  his  person 
and  premises  rifled  by  Australian  thieves.  During  the 
examination  of  two  prisoners  arrested  on  suspicion, 
five  thousand  citizens  gathered  round  the  City  Hall, 
and  handbills  were  circulated  in  which  it  was  proposed 
that  the  prisoners  should  be  lynched.  In  the  afternoon 
an  attempt  to  seize  the  men  was  made,  but  repulsed  by 
another  section  of  the  citizens — the  Washington  Guard. 
A  meeting  was  held  on  the  plaza,  and  a  committee  ap- 
pointed to  watch  the  authorities,  and  prevent  a  release. 
A  well-known  citizen,  Mr.  Brannan,  made  a  speech, 
in  which  he  said:  "We,  the  people,  are  the  mayor, 
the  recorder,  and  the  laws."  The  alcalde  addressed 
the  crowd,  and  suggested,  byway  of  compromise,  that 
they  should  elect  a  jury,  which  should  sit  in  the  regu- 
lar court,  and  try  the  prisoners.  This  was  refused,  and 
the  people  elected  not  only  a  jury,  but  three  judges,  a 
sheriff,  a  clerk,  a  public  prosecutor,  and  two  counsel 
for  the  defense.  This  court  then  tried  the  prisoners 
in  their  absence,  and  the  jury  failed  to  agree — nine 
were  for  conviction,  and  three  were  doubtful.  "Hang 
'em,  anyhow;  majority  rules,"  was  the  shout,  but  the 
popular  judges  stood  firm,  and  discharged  their  jury, 
while  the  people  acquiesced.  The  next  day  the  pris- 
oners were  tried  and  convicted  by  the  regular  court,  al- 
though they  were  ultimately  found  to  be  innocent  men. 

Matters  now  went  from  bad  to  worse :  five  times 
San  Francisco  was  swept  from  end  to  end  by  fires 
known  to  have  been  helped  on,  if  not  originally  kin- 
dled, by  incendiaries  in  the  hope  of  plunder ;  and  when, 
by  the  fires  of  May  and  June,  1851,  hardly  a  house 
was  left  untouched,  the  pious  Bostonians  held  up  their 
hands,  and  cried  "  Gomorrah!" 

Immediately  after  the  discovery  that  the  June  fire 
was  not  an  accident,  the  Vigilance  Committee  was 

17 


194  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

formed,  being  self-appointed,  and  consisting  of  the 
foremost  merchants  in  the  place.  This  was  on  the  7th 
of  June,  according  to  my  friend;  on  the  9th,  accord- 
ing to  the  Californian  histories.  It  was  rumored  that 
the  committee  consisted  of  two  hundred  citizens ;  it 
was  known  that  they  were  supported  by  the  whole  of 
the  city  press.  They  published  a  declaration,  in  which 
they  stated  that  there  is  "  no  security  for  life  or  prop- 
erty under  the  .  .  .  law  as  now  administered."  This 
they  ascribed  to  the  "quibbles  of  the  law,"  the  "cor- 
ruption of  the  police,"  the  "insecurity  of  prisons," 
the  "  laxity  of  those  who  pretend  to  administer  jus- 
tice." The  secret  instructions  to  the  committee 
contained  a  direction  that  the  members  should  at 
once  assemble  at  the  committee-room  whenever  sig- 
nals, consisting  of  two  taps  on  a  bell,  were  heard  at  in- 
tervals of  one  minute.  The  committee  was  organized 
with  president,  vice-president,  secretary,  treasurer,  ser- 
geant-at-arms,  standing  committee  on  qualifications, 
and  standing  committee  of  finance.  No  one  was  to  be  ad- 
mitted a  member  unless  he  were  a  "  respectable  citizen, 
and  approved  by  the  Committee  on  Qualifications." 

The  very  night  of  their  organization,  according  to  the 
histories,  or  three  nights  later,  according  to  my  friend 

Mr>  A ,  the  work  of  the  committee  began.    Some 

boatmen  at  Central  Wharf  saw  something  which  led 
them  to  follow  out  into  the  Yerba  Buena  cove  a  man, 
whom  they  captured  after  a  sharp  row.  As  they  over- 
hauled him,  he  threw  overboard  a  safe,  just  stolen  from 
a  bank,  but  this  was  soon  fished  out.  He  was  at  once 
carried  off  to  the  committee-room  of  the  Yigilants, 
and  the  bell  of  the  Monumental  Engine  Company 
struck  at  intervals,  as  the  rule  prescribed.  Not  only 
the  committee,  but  a  vast  surging  crowd  collected, 
although  midnight  was  now  past.  A was  on  the 


LYNCH  LAW.  195 

plaza,  and  says  that  every  man  was  armed,  ami  evi- 
dently disposed  to  back  up  the  committee.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Alia  Californian,  the  chief  of  the  police  came 
up  a  little  before  1  A.M.,  and  tried  to  force  an  entrance 
to  the  room  ;  but  he  was  met,  politely  enough,  with  a 
show  of  revolvers  sufficient  to  annihilate  his  men,  so 
he  judged  it  prudent  to  retreat. 

At  one  o'clock,  the  bell  of  the  engine-house  began 
to  toll,  and  the  crowd  became  excited.  Mr.  Brannan 
came  out  of  the  committee-room,  and,  standing  on  a 
mound  of  sand,  addressed  the  citizens.  As  well  as  my 
friend  could  remember,  his  words  were  these  :  "  Gen- 
tlemen, the  man — Jenkins  by  name — a  Sydney  con- 
vict, whose  supposed  offense  you  know,  has  had  a  fair 
trial  before  eighty  gentlemen,  and  been  unanimously 
found  guilty  by  them.  I  have  been  deputed  by  the  com- 
mittee to  ask  whether  it  is  your  pleasure  that  he  be 
hanged."  "  Ay !"  from  every  man  in  the  crowd. 
"  He  will  be  given  an  hour  to  prepare  for  death,  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Mines  has  been  already  sent  for  to  min- 
ister to  him.  Is  this  your  pleasure  ?"  Again  a  storm 
of  "  Ay  !"  Nothing  was  known  in  the  crowd  of  the 
details  of  the  trial,  except  that  counsel  had  been  heard 
on  the  prisoner's  behalf.  For  another  hour  the  excite- 
ment of  the  crowd  was  permitted  to  continue,  but  at 
two  o'clock  the  doors  of  the  committee-room  were 
thrown  open,  and  Jenkins  was  seen  smoking  a  cigar. 
Mr.  A said  that  he  did  not  believe  the  prisoner  ex- 
pected a  rescue,  but  thought  that  an  exhibition  of  pluck 
might  make  popular  with  the  crowd,  and  save  him.  A 
procession  of  Vigilants  with  drawn  Colts  was  then 
formed,  and  set  off  in  the  moonlight  across  the  four 
chief  streets  to  the  plaza.  Some  of  the  people  shouted 
"  To  the  flagstaff!"  but  there  came  a  cry,  "  Don't  dese- 
crate the  Liberty  Pole.  To  the  old  adobe !  the  old 


196  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

adobe  !"  and  to  the  old  adobe  custom-house  the  prisoner 
was  dragged.  In  five  minutes  he  was  hanging  from 
the  roof,  three  hundred  citizens  lending  a  hand  at  the 

rope.  At  six  in  the  morning,  A went  home,  but 

he  heard  that  the  police  cut  down  the  body  about  that 
time,  and  carried  it  to  the  coroner's  house. 

An  inquest  was  held  next  day.  The  city  officers 
swore  that  they  had  done  all  they  could  to  prevent  the 
execution,  but  they  refused  to  give  up  the  names 
of  the  Vigilance  Committee.  The  members  them- 
selves were  less  cautious.  Mr.  Brannan  and  others 
came  forward  of  their  own  proper  motion,  and  dis- 
closed all  the  circumstances  of  the  trial :  140  of  the 
committee  backed  them  up  by  a  written  protestation 
against  interference  with  the  Vigilants,  to  which  their 
signatures  were  appended.  Protest  and  evidence  have 
been  published,  not  only  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time, 
but  in  the  San  Francisco  "Annals."  The  coroner's 
jury  found  a  verdict  of  "  Strangulation,  consequent  on 
the  concerted  action  of  a  body  of  citizens  calling  them- 
selves a  Committee  of  Vigilance."  An  hour  after  the 
verdict  was  given,  a  mass  meeting  of  the  whole  of  the 
respectable  inhabitants  was  held  in  the  plaza,  and  a 
resolution  approving  of  the  action  of  the  committee 
passed  by  acclamation. 

In  July,  1851,  the  committee  hanged  another  man  on 
the  Market  Street  wharf,  and  appointed  a  sub-commit- 
tee of  thirty  to  board  every  ship  that  crossed  the  bar, 
seize  all  persons  suspected  of  being  "  Sydney  Coves," 
and  reship  them  to  New  South  Wales. 

In  August  came  the  great  struggle  between  the 
Vigilants  and  constituted  authority.  It  was  sharp  and 
decisive.  Whittaker  and  McKenzie,  two  Sydney 
Coves,  were  arrested  by  the  committee  for  various 
crimes,  and  sentenced  to  death.  The  next  day,  Sheriff 


LYNCH  LAW.  197 

Hays  seized  them  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  in  the 
rooms  of  the  committee.  The  bell  was  tolled:  the 
citizens  assembled,  the  Vigilants  told  their  story,  the 
men  were  seized  once  more,  and  by  noon  they  were 
hanging  from  the  loft  of  the  committee-house,  by  the 
ordinary  lifting  tackle  for  heavy  goods.  Fifteen  thou- 
sand people  were  present,  and  approved.  "After  this," 
said  A ,  "there  could  be  no  mistake  about  the  cit- 
izens supporting  the  committee." 

By  September,  the  Yigilants  had  transported  all  the 
"Coves"  on  whom  they  could  lay  hands;  so  they  issued 
a  proclamation,  declaring  that  for  the  future  they  would 
confine  themselves  to  aiding  the  law  by  tracing  out 
and  guarding  criminals;  and  in  pursuance  of  their  de- 
cision, they  soon  afterward  helped  the  authorities  in 
preventing  the  lynching  of  a  ship-captain  for  cruelty  to 
his  men. 

After  the  great  sweep  of  1851,  things  became  steadily 
worse  again  till  they  culminated  in  1855,  a  year  to 
which  my  friend  looked  backed  with  horror.  Not 
counting  Indians,  there  were  four  hundred  persons 
died  by  violence  in  California  in  that  single  year. 
Fifty  of  these  were  lynched,  a  dozen  were  hanged  by 
law,  a  couple  of  dozen  shot  by  the  sheriffs  and  tax-col- 
lectors in  the  course  of  their  duty.  The  officers  did 
not  escape  scot  free.  The  under-sheriff  of  San  Fran- 
cisco was  shot  in  Mission  Street,  in  broad  daylight,  by 
a  man  upon  whom  he  was  trying  to  execute  a  writ  of 
ejectment. 

Judges,  mayors,  supervisors,  politicians,  all  w^ere  bad 
alike.  The  merchants  of  the  city  were  from  £Tew 
England,  New  York,  and  foreign  lands;  but  the  men 
who  assumed  the  direction  of  public  affairs,  and  espe- 
cially of  public  funds,  were  Southerners,  many  of  them 
"  Border  Ruffians"  of  the  most  savage  stamp — "  Pikes," 

n* 


198  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

as  they  were  called,  from  Pike's  County  in  Missouri, 
from  which  their 'leaders  came.  Instead  of  banding 
themselves  together  to  oppose  the  laws,  these  rogues 
and  ruffians  found  it  easier  to  control  the  making  of 
them.  Their  favorite  method  of  defeating  their  New 
England  foes  was  by  the  simple  plan  of  "  stuffing,"  or 
filling  the  ballot-box  with  forged  tickets  when  the  elec- 
tions were  concluded.  Two  Irishmen — Casey  and  Sul- 
livan— were  their  tools  in  this  shameful  work.  Werth, 
a  Southerner,  the  leader  of  Casey's  gang,  had  been  de- 
nounced in  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin  as  the  murderer 
of  a  man  named  Kittering;  and  Casey,  meeting  James 
King,  editor  of  the  Bulletin,  shot  him  dead  in  Mont- 
gomery Street  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  Casey  and 
one  of  his  assistants — a  man  named  Cora — were  hanged 
by  the  people  as  Mr.  King's  body  was  being  carried  to 
the  grave,  and  Sullivan  committed  suicide  the  same 
day. 

Books  were  opened  for  the  enrollment  of  the  names 
of  those  who  were  prepared  to  support  the  committee: 
nine  thousand  grown  white  males  inscribed  themselves 
within  four  days.  Governor  Johnson  at  once  declared 
that  he  should  suppress  the  committee,  but  the  City  of 
Sacramento  prevented  war  by  offering  a  thousand  men 
for  the  Vigilants'  support,  the  other  California!!  cities 
following  suit.  The  committee  got  together  6000 
stand  of  arms  and  thirty  cannon,  and  fortified  their 
rooms  with  earthworks  and  barricades.  The  gov- 
ernor, having  called  on  the  general  commanding  the 
Federal  forces  at  Benicia,  who  wisely  refused  to  inter- 
fere, marched  upon  the  city,  was  surrounded,  and 
taken  prisoner  with  all  his  forces  without  the  striking 
of  a  blow. 

Having  now  obtained  the  control  of  the  State  gov- 
ernment, the  committee  proceeded  to  banish  all  the 


LYNCH  LAW.  199 

"Pikes"  and  " Pukes."  Four  were  hanged,  forty 
transported,  and  many  ran  away.  This  done,  the 
committee  prepared  an  elaborate  report  upon  the  prop- 
erty and  finances  of  the  State,  and  then,  after  a  great 
parade,  ten  regiments  strong,  upon  the  plaza  and 
through  the  streets,  they  adjourned  forever,  and  "the 
thirty-three"  and  their  ten  thousand  backers  retired 
into  private  life  once  more,  and  put  an  end  to  this  sin- 
gular spectacle  of  the  rebellion  of  a  free  people  against 
rulers  nominally  elected  by  itself.  As  my  friend  said, 
when  he  finished  his  long  yarn,  "This  has  more  than 
archseologic  interest:  we  may  live  too  see  a  similar 
Vigilance  Committee  in  New  York." 

For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  believe  that  an  uprising 
against  bad  government  is  possible  in  New  York  City, 
because  there  the  supporters  of  bad  government  are  a 
majority  of  the  people.  Their  interest  is  the  other 
way :  in  increased  city  taxes  they  evidently  lose  far 
more  than,  as  a  class,  they  gain  by  what  is  spent  among 
them  in  corruption ;  but  when  they  come  to  see  this, 
they  will  not  rebel  against  their  corrupt  leaders,  but 
elect  those  whom  they  can  trust.  In  San  Francisco, 
the  case  was  widely  different :  through  the  ballot  frauds, 
a  majority  of  the  citizens  were  being  infamously  mis- 
governed by  a  contemptible  minority,  and  the  events 
of  1856  were  only  the  necessary  acts  of  the  majority  to 
regain  their  power,  coupled  with  certain  exceptional 
acts  in  the  shape  of  arbitrary  transportation  of  "  Pikes" 
and  Southern  rowdies,  justified' by  the  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances of  the  young  community.  At  Melbourne, 
under  circumstances  somewhat  similar,  our  English 
colonists,  instead  of  setting  up  a  committee,  built  Pent- 
ridge  Stockade  with  walls  some  thirty  feet  high,  and 
created  a  military  police,  with  almost  arbitrary  power. 
The  difference  is  one  of  words.  The  whirl  of  life  in  a 


200  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

young  gold  country  not  only  prevents  the  best  men  en- 
tering the  political  field,  and  so  forces  citizens  to  exer- 
cise their  right  of  choice  only  between  candidates  of 
equal  badness,  but  so  engrosses  the  members  of  the 
community  who  exercise  the  ballot  as  to  prevent  the 
detection  of  fraud  till  it  has  ruled  for  years.  Through- 
out young  countries  generally  you  find  men  say :  ' '  Yes ! 
we're  robbed,  we  know;  but  no  one  has  time  to  go  into 
that."  "I'm  for  the  old  men/'  said  a  Californian  elector 
once,  "  for  they've  plundered  us  so  long  that  they're 
gorged,  and  can't  swallow  any  more."  "No,"  said 
another,  "  let's  have  fresh  blood.  Give  every  man  a 
chance  of  robbing  the  State.  Shape  and  share  alike." 
The  wonder  is,  not  that  in  such  a  State  as  California 
was  till  lately  the  machinery  of  government  should  work 
unevenly,  but  that  it  should  work  at  all.  Democracy 
has  never  endured  so  rough  a  test  as  that  from  which 
it  has  triumphantly  emerged  in  the  Golden  State  and 
City. 

The  public  spirit  with  which  the  merchants  came  for- 
ward and  gave  time  and  money  to  the  cause  of  order  is 
worthy  of  all  praise,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
organization  of  a  new  government  was  carried  through 
is  an  instance  of  the  singular  power  of  our  race  for 
building  up  the  machinery  of  self-government  upder 
conditions  the  most  unpromising.  Instead  of  the  events 
of  1856  having  been  a  case  of  opposition  to  law  and 
order,  they  will  stand  in  history  as  a  remarkable  proof 
of  the  law-abiding  character  of  a  people  who  vindicated 
justice  by  a  demonstration  of  overwhelming  force,  laid 
dowrn  their  arms,  and  returned  in  a  few  weeks  to  the 
peaceable  routine  of  business  life. 

If,  in  the  merchant  founders  of  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittees of  San  Francisco  we  can  see  the  descendants  of 
the  justice-loving  Germans  of  the  time  of  Tacitus,  I 


LYNCH  LAW.  201 

found  iii  another  class  of  vigilants  the  moral  offspring 
of  Alfred's  village  aldermen  of  our  own  Saxon  age. 
From  Mr.  William  M.  Byers,  now  editor  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Neios,  I  had  heard  the  story  of  the  early  set- 
tlers' land-law  in  Missouri;  in  Stanton's  office  in  Den- 
ver City,  I  had  seen  the  records  of  the  Arrapahoe 
County  Claim-club,  with  which  he  had  been  connected 
at  the  first  settlement  of  Colorado ;  but  at  San  Jose*,  I 
heard  details  of  the  settlers'  custom- law — the  Califor- 
nian  "grand-coutumier,"  it  might  he  called — which 
convinced  me  that,  in  order  to  find  the  rudiments  of 
all  that,  politically  speaking,  is  best  and  most  vigorous 
in  the  Saxon  mind,  you  must  seek  countries  in  which 
Saxon  civilization  itself  is  in  its  infancy.  The  greater 
the  difficulties  of  the  situation,  the  more  racy  the  cus- 
tom, the  more  national  the  law. 

When  a  new  State  began  to  be  "settled  up"  — 
that  is,  its  lauds  entered  upon  by  actual  settlers,  not 
landsharks — the  inhabitants  often  found  themselves 
in  the  wilderness,  far  in  advance  of  attorneys,  courts, 
and  judges.  It  was  their  custom  when  this  occurred 
to  divide  the  territory  into  districts  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  square,  and  form  for  each  a  "claim- 
club"  to  protect  the  land-claims,  or  property  of  the 
members.  Whenever  a  question  of  title  arose,  a  judge 
and  jury  were  chosen  from  among  the  members  to 
hear  and  determine  the  case.  The  occupancy  title 
was  invariably  protected  up  to  a  certain  number  of 
acres,  which  was  differently  fixed  by  different  clubs, 
and  varied  in  those  of  which  I  have  heard  the  rules 
from  100  to  250  acres,  averaging  150.  The  United 
States  " Homestead"  and  "Pre-emption"  laws  were 
founded  on  the  practice  of  these  clubs.  The  claim- 
clubs  interfered  only  for  the  protection  of  their  mem- 
bers, but  they  never  scrupled  to  hang  willful  offenders 


202  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

against  their  rules,  whether  memhers  or  outsiders. 
Execution  of  the  decrees  of  the  club  was  generally 
left  to  the  county  sheriff,  if  he  was  a  member,  and  in 
this  case  a  certain  air  of  legality  was  given  to  the  local 
action.  It  is  perhaps  not  too  much  to  say  that  a 
Western  sheriff  is  an  irresponsible  official,  possessed 
of  gigantic  powers,  but  seldom  known  to  abuse  them. 
He  is  a  Csesar,  chosen  for  his  honesty,  fearlessness, 
clean  shooting,  and  quick  loading,  by  men  who  know 
him  well:  if  he  breaks  down,  he  is  soon  deposed,  and 
a  better  man  chosen  for  dictator.  I  have  known  a 
Western  paper  say:  "Frank  is  our  man  for  sheriff, 
next  October.  See  the  way  he  shot  one  of  the  fellows 
who  robbed  his  store,  and  followed  up  the  other,  and 
shot  him  too  the  next  day.  Frank  is  the  boy  for  us.'* 
In  such  a  state  of  society  as  this,  the  distinction  be- 
tween law  and  ly neb-law  can  scarcely  be  said  to  exist, 
and  in  the  eyes  of  every  Western  settler  the  claim- 
club  backed  by  the  sheriff's  name  was  as  strong  and 
as  full  of  the  majesty  of  the  law  as  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Byers  told  me  of  a  case  of 
the  infliction  of  death-punishment  by  a  claim-club 
which  occurred  in  Kansas  after  the  "  Homestead"  law 
was  passed  allowing  the  occupant  when  he  had  tilled 
and  improved  the  land  for  five  years,  to  purchase  it  at 
one  and  a  quarter  dollars  an  acre.  A  man  settled  on 
a  piece  of  land,  and  labored  on  it  for  some  years.  He 
then  "sold  it,"  which  he  had,  of  course,  no  power  to 
do,  the  land  being  still  the  property  of  the  United 
States.  Having  done  this,  he  went  and  " pre-empted" 
it  under  the  Homestead  Act,  at  the  government  price. 
When  he  attempted  to  eject  the  man  to  whom  he  had 
assumed  to  sell,  the  club  ordered  the  sheriff  to  "put 
the  man  away,"  and  he  was  never  seen  again.  Perhaps 
Mr.  Byers  was  the  sheriff;  he  seemed  to  have  the  de- 


LYNCH  LAW.  203 

tails  at  his  fingers'  ends,  and  his  later  history  in  Denver, 
where  he  once  had  the  lynching  rope  round  his  neck 
for  exposing  gamblers,  testifies  to  his  boldness. 

Some  of  the  rascalities  which  the  claim-clubs  were 
expected  to  put  down  were  ingenious  enough.  Some- 
times a  man  would  build  a  dozen  houses  on  a  block  of 
land,  and,  going  there  to  enter  on  possession  after  they 
were  complete,  would  find  that  in  the  night  the  whole 
of  them  had  disappeared.  Frauds  under  the  Home- 
stead Act  were  both  many  and  strange.  Men  were  re- 
quired to  prove  that  they  had  on  the  land  a  house  of 
at  least  ten  feet  square.  They  have  been  known  to 
whittle  out  a  toy-house  with  their  bowie,  and,  carrying 
it  to  the  land,  to  measure  it  in  the  presence  of  a  friend 
— twelve  inches  by  thirteen.  In  court  the  pre-emptor, 
examining  his  own  witness,  would  say,  "  What  are  the 
dimensions  of  that  house  of  mine  ?"  "  Twelve  by  thir- 
teen." "  That  will  do."  In  Kansas  a  log-house  of  the 
regulation  size  was  fitted  up  on  wheels,  and  let  at  ten 
dollars  a  day,  in  order  that  it  might  be  wheeled  on  to 
different  lots,  to  be  sworn  to  as  a  house  upon  the  land. 
Men  have  been  known  to  make  a  window-sash  and 
frame,  and  keep  them  inside  of  their  windowless  huts, 
to  swear  that  they  had  a  window  in  their  house — an- 
other of  the  requirements  of  the  act.  It  is  a  singular 
mark  of  deference  to  the  traditions  of  a  Puritan  an- 
cestry that  such  accomplished  liars  as  the  Western  land- 
sharks  should  feel  it  necessary  to  have  any  foundation 
whatever  for  their  lies ;  but  not  only  in  this  respect 
are  they  a  curious  race.  One  of  their  peculiarities  is 
that,  however  wealthy  they  may  be,  they  will  never 
place  their  money  out  at  interest,  never  sink  it  in  a 
speculation,  however  tempting,  when  there  is  no  pros- 
pect of  almost  immediate  realization.  To  turn  their 
money  over  often,  at  whatever  risk,  is  with  these  men 


204  GEE ATE R    BRITAIN. 

an  axiom.  The  advanced-guard  of  civilization,  they 
push  out  into  an  unknown  wilderness,  and  seize  upon 
the  available  lots,  the  streams,  the  springs,  the  river 
bottoms,  the  falls  or  "water-privileges,"  and  then, 
using  their  interest  in  the  territorial  legislature — using, 
perhaps,  direct  corruption  in  some  cases — they  procure 
the  location  of  the  State  capital  upon  their  lands,  or 
the  passage  of  the  railroads  through  their  valleys. 
The  capital  of  Nebraska  has  been  fixed  in  this  manner 
at  a  place  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  near- 
est settlement.  A  newspaper  appeared  suddenly,  dated 
from  "Lincoln  City,  center  of  Nebraska  Territory," 
but  published  in  reality  in  Omaha.  To  cope  with  such 
fellows,  Western  sheriffs  must  be  no  ordinary  men. 

Thanks  to  the  Vigilance  Committees,  California 
stands  now  before  the  other  far-western  States.  Row- 
dyism is  being  put  down  as  the  God-fearing  Northern- 
ers gain  ground.  It  may  still  be  dangerous  to  stroke 
your  beard  in  a  bar-room  at  Placerville  or  El  Dorado ; 
"a  gentleman  in  the  loafing  and  chancing  line"  may 
still  be  met  with  in  Sacramento ;  here  and  there  a 
Missourian  "Pike,"  as  yet  unhung,  may  boast  that  he 
can  whip  his  weight  in  wild  cats, — but  San  Francisco 
has  at  least  reached  the  age  of  outward  decorum,  has 
shut  up  public  gaming-houses,  and  supports  four  church 
papers. 

In  Colorado  lynch  law  is  not  as  yet  forgotten :  the 
day  we  entered  Denver  the  editor  of  the  Gazette  ex- 
pressed, "  on  historical  grounds,"  his  deep  regret  at  the 
cutting  down  of  two  fine  cotton  wood-trees  that  stood 
on  Cherry  Creek.  "When  we  came  to  talk  to  him  we 
found  that  the  "history"  alluded  to  was  that  of  the 
"  escape  up  "  these  trees  of  many  an  early  inhabitant 
of  Denver  City.  "  There's  the  tree  we  used  to  put  the 
jury  under,  and  that's  the  one  we  hanged  'em  on.  Put 


LYNCH  LAW.  205 

a  cart  under  the  tree,  and  the  boy  standing  on  it,  with 
the  rope  around  him;  give  him  time  for  a  pray,  then 
smack  the  whip,  and  ther'  you  air." 

In  Denver  we  were  reserved  upon  the  subject  of 
Vigilance  Committees,  for  it  is  dangerous  sometimes 
to  make  close  inquiries  as  to  their  constitution.  While 
I  was  in  Leaven  worth  a  man  was  hanged  by  the  mob 
at  Council  Bluffs  for  asking  the  names  of  the  Vigilants 
who  had  hanged  a  friend  of  his  the  year  before.  We 
learned  enough,  however,  at  Denver  to  show  that  the 
committee  in  that  city  still  exists;  and  in  Virginia  and 
Carson  I  know  that  the  organizations  are  continued ; 
but  offenders  are  oftener  shot  quietly  than  publicly 
hanged,  in  order  to  prevent  an  outcry,  and  avoid  the 
vengeance  of  the  relatives.  The  verdict  of  the  jury 
never  fails  to  be  respected,  but  acquittal  is  almost  as 
unknown  as  mercy  to  those  convicted.  Innocent  men 
are  seldom  tried  before  such  juries,  for  the  case  must 
be  clear  before  the  sheriff  will  run  the  risk  of  being 
shot  in  making  the  arrest.  When  the  man's  fate  is 
settled,  the  sheriff  drives  out  quietly  in  his  buggy,  and 
next  day  men  say  when  they  meet,  uPoor  's  es- 
caped ;"  or  else  it  is,  "  The  sheriff's  shot.  Who'll  run 
for  office?" 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  history  of  the  Vigilance 
Committees,  as  I  heard  their  stories  from  Kansas  to 
California,  that  they  are  to  be  divided  into  two  classes, 
with  sharply-marked  characteristics — those  where  com- 
mittee hangings,  transportations,  warnings,  are  alike 
open  to  the  light  of  day,  such  as  the  committees  of 
San  Francisco  in  1856,  and  the  Sandwich  Islands  in 
1866,  and  those — unhappily  the  vast  majority — where 
all  is  secret  and  irresponsible.  Here,  in  San  Francisco, 
the  committee  was  the  government;  elsewhere,  the 
organization  was  less  wide,  and  the  members,  though 

18 


206  GEE  ATE  R   BRITAIN. 

always  shrewdly  guessed  at,  never  known.  Neither 
class  should  be  necessary,  unless  when  a  gold  rush 
brings  down  upon  a  State  the  desperadoes  of  the  world; 
but  there  is  this  encouragement  even  in  the  history  of 
lynch  law:  that,  although  English  settlements  often 
start  wild,  they  never  have  been  known  to  go  wild. 

The  men  who  formed  the  second  Vigilance  Commit- 
tee of  San  Francisco  are  now  the  governor,  Senators, 
and  Congressmen  of  California,  the  mayors  and  sheriffs 
of  her  towns.  Nowadays  the  citizens  are  remarkable, 
even  among  Americans,  for  their  love  of  law  and  order. 
Their  city,  though  still  subject  to  a  yearly  deluge  from 
the  outpourings  of  all  the  overcrowded  slums  of  Eu- 
rope, is,  as  the  New  Yorker  said,  the  best  policed  in 
all  America.  In  politics,  too,  it  is  remarked  that 
party  organizations  have  no  power  in  this  State  from 
the  moment  that  they  attempt  to  nominate  corrupt  or 
time-serving  men.  The  people  break  loose  from  their 
caucuses  and  conventions,  and  vote  in  a  body  for  their 
honest  enemies,  rather  than  for  corrupt  friends.  They 
have  the  advantage  of  singular  ability,  for  there  is  not 
an  average  man  in  California. 


GOLDEN  CITY.  207 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

GOLDEN   CITY. 

THE  first  letter  which  I  delivered  in  San  Francisco 
was  from  a  Mormon  gentleman  to  a  merchant,  who,  as 
he  read  it,  exclaimed:  "Ah!  so  you  want  to  see  the 
lions  ?  I'll  pick  you  up  at  three,  and  take  you  there.1' 
I  wondered,  but  went,  as  travelers  do. 

At  the  end  of  a  pleasant  drive  along  the  best  road 
in  all  America,  I  found  myself  upon  a  cliff  overhanging 
the  Pacific,  with  a  glorious  outlook,  seaward  toward 
the  Farallones,  and  northward  to  Cape  Benita  and  the 
Golden  Gate.  Beneath,  a  few  hundred  yards  from 
shore,  was  a  conical  rock,  covered  with  shapeless  mon- 
sters, plashing  the  water  and  roaring  ceaselessly,  while 
others  swam  around.  These  were  "the  lions,"  my 
acquaintance  said — the  sea-lions.  I  did  not  enter  upon 
an  explanation  of  our  slang  phrase,  "the  lions"  which 
the  Mormon,  himself  an  Englishman,  no  doubt  had 
used,  but  took  the  first  opportunity  of  seeing  the  re- 
mainder of  "  the  lions"  of  the  Golden  City. 

The  most  remarkable  spot  in  all  America  is  Mission 
Dolores,  in  the  outskirts  of  San  Francisco  City — once 
a  settlement  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  now  partly 
blanket  factory  and  partly  church.  Nowhere  has  the 
conflict  between  the  Saxon  and  Latin  races  been  so 
sharp  and  so  decisive.  For  eighty  or  ninety  years 
California  was  first  Spanish,  then  Mexican,  then  a  half 
independent  Spanish-American  republic.  The  pro- 
gress of  those  ninety  years  was  shown  in  the  fouuda- 


208  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

tion  of  half  a  dozen  Jesuit  "missions,"  which  held 
each  of  them  a  thousand  or  two  tame  Indians  as  slaves, 
while  a  few  military  settlers  and  their  friends  divided 
the  interior  with  the  savage  tribes.  Gold,  which  had 
been  discovered  here  by  Drake,  was  never  sought :  the 
fathers,  like  the  Mormon  chiefs,  discouraged  mining; 
it  interfered  with  their  tame  Indians.  Here  and  there, 
in  four  cases,  perhaps,  in  all,  a  presidio,  or  castle,  had 
been  built  for  the  protection  of  the  mission,  and  a 
puebla,  or  tiny  free  town,  had  been  suffered  to  grow 
up,  not  without  remonstrance  from  the  fathers.  Los 
Angeles  had  thus  sprung  from  the  mission  of  that 
name,  the  fishing  village  of  Yerba  Buena,  from  Mis- 
sion Dolores  on  the  bay  of  San  Francisco,  and  San  Jose*, 
from  Santa  Clara.  Ir  1846,  Fremont  the  Pathfinder 
conquered  the  country  v,  :th  forty-two  men,  and  now  it 
has  a  settled  population  of  nearly  half  a  million  ;  San 
Francisco  is  as  large  as  Newcastle  or  Hull,  as  flourish- 
ing as  Liverpool,  and  the  Saxon  blanket  factory  has 
replaced  the  Spanish  mission.  The  story  might  have 
served  as  a  warning  to  the  French  Emperor,  when  he 
sent  ships  and  men  to  found  a  "  Latin  empire  in 
America." 

Between  the  presidio  and  the  Mission  Dolores  lies 
Lone  Mountain  Cemetery,  in  that  solitary  calm  and 
majesty  of  beauty  which  befits  a  home  for  the  dead, 
the  most  lovely  of  all  the  cemeteries  of  America. 
Queen  Emma,  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  who  is  here  at 
present,  said  of  it  yesterday  to  a  Californian  merchant : 
"  How  comes  it  that  you  Americans,  who  live  so  fast, 
find  time  to  bury  your  dead  so  beautifully  ?" 

Lone  Mountain  is  not  the  only  delicious  spot  that  is 
given  to  the  American  dead.  Laurel  Hill,  Mount  Au- 
burn, Greenwood,  Cypress  Grove,  Hollywood,  Oak 
Hill,  are  names  not  more  full  of  poetry  than  are  the 


GOLDEN   CITY.  209 

places  to  which  they  belong ;  but  Lone  Mountain  has 
over  all  an  advantage  in  its  giant  fuchsias,  and  scarlet 
geraniums  of  the  size  and  shape  of  trees;  in  the  distant 
glimpses,  too,  of  the  still  Pacific. 

San  Francisco  is  ill  placed,  so  far  as  mere  building 
facilities  are  concerned.  When  the  first  houses  were 
built  in  1845  and  1846,  they  stood  on  a  strip  of  beach 
surrounding  the  sheltered  cove  of  Yerba  Buena,  and 
at  the  foot  of  the  steep  and  lofty  sand-hills.  Dunes 
and  cove  have  disappeared  together;  the  hills  have  been 
shot  bodily  into  the  bay,  and  the  former  harbor  is  now 
the  business  quarter  of  the  city.  "Not  a  street  can  be 
built  without  cutting  down  a  hill,  or  filling  up  a  glen. 
Never  was  a  great  town  built  under  heavier  difficulties; 
but  trade  requires  it  to  be  exactly  where  it  is,  and  there 
it  will  remain  and  grow.  Its  former  rivals,  Yallejo 
and  Benicia,  are  grass-grown  villages,  in  spite  of  their 
having  had  the  advantage  of  "  a  perfect  situation." 
While  the  spot  on  which  the  Golden  City  stands  was 
still  occupied  by  the  struggling  village  of  Yerba  Buena, 
Francisca  was  a  rising  city,  where  corner  lots  were 
worth  their  ten  or  twenty  thousand  dollars.  When 
the  gold  rush  came,  the  village,  shooting  to  the  front, 
voted  itself  the  name  of  its  great  bay,  and  Francisca 
had  to  change  its  title  to  Benicia,  in  order  not  to  be 
thought  a  mere  suburb  of  San  Francisco.  The  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  was  once  looked  to  as  the  future 
haven  of  Western  America,  and  point  of  convergence 
of  the  railroad  lines;  but  the  "  center  of  the  universe" 
has  not  more  completely  removed  from  Independence 
to  Fort  Blley  than  Astoria  has  yielded  to  San  Fran- 
cisco the  claim  to  be  the  port  of  the  Pacific. 

The  one  great  danger  of  this  coast  all  its  cities  share 
in  common.  Three  times  within  the  present  century, 
the  spot  on  which  San  Francisco  stands  has  been  vio- 

18* 


210  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

lently  disturbed  by  subterranean  forces.  The  earth- 
quake of  last  year  has  left  its  mark  upon  Montgomery 
Street  and  the  plaza,  for  it  frightened  the  San  Fran- 
ciscans into  putting  up  light  wooden  cornices  to  hotels 
and  banks,  instead  of  the  massive  stone  projections 
that  are  common  in  the  States ;  otherwise,  though 
lesser  shocks  are  daily  matters,  the  San  Franciscans 
have  forgotten  the  "great  scare."  A  year  is  along 
time  in  California.  There  is  little  of  the  earliest  San 
Francisco  left,  though  the  city  is  only  eighteen  years 
old.  Fires  have  done  good  work  as  well  as  harm,  and 
it  is  worth  a  walk  up  to  the  plaza  to  see  how  prim  and 
starched  are  the  houses  which  now  occupy  a  square 
three  sides  of  which  were,  in  1850,  given  up  to  the 
public  gaming-hells. 

One  of  the  few  remaining  bits  of  old  Golden  City 
life  is  to  be  found  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  "  What 
Cheer  House,"  the  resting-place  of  diggers  on  their  way 
from  the  interior  to  take  ship  for  New  York  or  Europe. 
Here  there  is  no  lack  of  coin,  no  want  of  oaths,  no 
scarcity  of  drinks.  "  Juleps"  are  as  plentiful  as  in  Bal- 
timore itself;  Yerba  Buena,  the  old  name  for  San 
Francisco,  means  "mint." 

If  the  old  character  of  the  city  is  gone,  there  are  still 
odd  scenes  to  be  met  with  in  its  streets.  To-day  I  saw 
a  master  builder  of  great  wealth  with  his  coat  and 
waistcoat  off,  and  his  hat  stowed  away  on  one  side, 
carefully  teaching  a  raw  Irish  lad  how  to  lay  a  brick. 
He  told  me  that  the  acquisition  of  the  art  would  bring 
the  man  an  immediate  rise  in  his  wages  from  five  to 
ten  shillings  a  day.  Unskilled  labor,  Mexican  and 
Chinese,  is  plentiful  enough,  but  white  artisans  are 
scarce.  The  want  of  servants  is  such,  that  even  the 
wealthiest  inhabitants  live  with  their  wives  arid  families 
in  hotels,  to  avoid  the  cost  and  trouble  of  an  establish- 


GOLDEN  CITY.  211 

ment.  Those  who  have  houses  pay  rough  unkempt 
Irish  girls  from  £6  to  £8  a  month,  with  board,  "  out- 
ings" when  they  please,  and  "  followers"  unlimited. 

The  hotel  boarding  has  much  to  do  with  the  some- 
what unwomanly  manner  of  a  few  among  the  ladies  of 
the  newest  States,  but  the  effect  upon  the  children  is 
more  marked  than  it  is  upon  their  mothers.  To  a 
woman  of  wealth,  it  matters,  perhaps,  but  little  whether 
she  rules  a  household  of  her  own,  or  boards  in  the  first 
floor  of  some  gigantic  hostelry ;  but  it  does  matter  a 
great  deal  to  her  children,  who,  in  the  one  case,  have 
a  home  to  play  arid  work  in,  and  who,  in  the  other, 
play  on  the  stairs  or  in  the  corridors,  to  the  annoyance 
of  every  sojourner  in  the  hotel,  and  never  dream  of 
work  out  of  school-hours,  or  of  solid  reading  that  is  not 
compulsory.  The  only  one  of  the  common  charges 
brought  against  America  in  English  society  and 
in  English  books  and  papers  that  is  thoroughly 
true,  is  the  statement  that  American  children,  as 
a  rule,  are  "  forward,"  ill  mannered,  and  immoral. 
An  American  can  scarcely  be  found  who  does  not 
admit  and  deplore  the  fact.  With  the  self-exposing 
honesty  that  is  a  characteristic  of  their  nation,  Ameri- 
can gentlemen  will  talk  by  the  hour  of  the  terrible 
profligacy  of  the  young  New  Yorkers.  Boys,  they  tell 
you,  who  in  England  would  be  safe  in  the  lower  school 
at  Eton  or  in  well-managed  houses,  in  New  York  or 
New  Orleans  are  deep  gamesters  and  God-defying  row- 
dies. In  New  England,  things  are  better ;  in  the  West, 
there  is  yet  time  to  prevent  the  ill  arising;  but  even  in 
the  most  old-fashioned  of  American  States,  the  children 
are  far  too  full  of  self-assurance.  Their  faults  are 
chiefly  faults  of  manner,  but  such  in  children  have  a 
tendency  to  become  so  many  vices.  On  my  way  home 
from  Egypt,  I  crossed  the  Simplon  with  a  Southerner 


212  GEEATEE    BE1TAIN. 

and  a  Pennsylvania!!  boy  of  fourteen  or  fifteen.  An 
English  boy  would  have  expressed  his  opinion,  and 
been  silent :  this  lad's  attacks  upon  the  poor  Southerner 
were  unceasing  and  unfeeling;  yet  I  could  see  that  he 
was  good  at  bottom.  I  watched  my  chance  to  give  him 
my  view  of  his  conduct,  and  when  we  parted,  he  came 
up  and  shook  hands,  saying  :  "  You're  not  a  bad  fellow 
for  a  Britisher,  after  all." 

In  my  walks  through  the  city  I  found  its  climate 
agreeable  rather  for  work  than  idleness.  Sauntering 
or  lounging  is  as  little  possible  as  it  is  in  London.  The 
summer  is  not  yet  ended;  and  in  the  summer  at  San 
Francisco  it  is  cold  after  eleven  in  the  day — strangelv 
cold  for  the  latitude  of  Athens.  The  fierce  sun 
scorches  up  the  valleys  of  the  San  Joaquin  and  the 
Sacramento  in  the  early  morning;  and  the  heated  air, 
rising  from  off  the  ground,  leaves  its  place  to  be  filled 
by  the  cold  breeze  from  the  Pacific.  The  Contra  Costa 
Range  is  unbroken  but  by  the  single  gap  of  the  Golden 
Gatez  and  through  this  opening  the  cold  winds  rush  in 
a  never-ceasing  gale,  spreading  fanlike  as  soon  as  they 
have  passed  the  narrows.  Hence  it  is  that  the  Golden 
Gate  is  called  "The  Keyhole,"  and  the  wind  "The 
Keyhole  Breeze."  Up  country  they  make  it  raise  the 
water  for  irrigation.  In  winter  there  is  a  calm,  and 
then  the  city  is  as  sunny  as  the  rest  of  California. 

So  purely  local  is  the  bitter  gale  that  at  Benicia,  ten 
miles  from  San  Francisco,  the  mean  temperature  is 
ten  degrees  higher  for  the  year,  and  nearly  twenty  for 
the  summer.  I  have  stood  on  the  shore  at  Benicia 
when  the  thermometer  was  at  a  hundred  in  the  shade, 
and  seen  the  clouds  pouring  in  from  the  Pacific,  and 
hiding  San  Francisco  in  a  murky  pall,  while  the  tem- 
perature there  was  under  seventy  degrees.  This  fog 
retarded  by  a  hundred  years  the  discovery  of  San  Fran- 


GOLDEN  CITY.  213 

cisco  Bay.  The  entrance  to  the  Golden  Gate  is  nar- 
row, and  the  mists  hang  there  all  day.  Cabrillo,  Drake, 
Viscaino,  sailed  past  it  without  seeing  that  there  was 
a  bay,  and  the  great  land-locked  sea  was  first  beheld 
by  white  men  when  the  missionaries  came  upon  its 
arms  and  creeks,  far  away  inland. 

The  peculiarity  of  climate  carries  with  it  great  ad- 
vantages. It  is  never  too  hot,  never  too  cold,  to  work 
— a  fact  which  of  itself  secures  a  grand  future  for  San 
Francisco.  The  effect  upon  national  type  is  marked. 
At  a  San  Franciscan  ball  you  see  English  faces,  not 
American.  Even  the  lean  Western  men  and  hungry 
Yankees  become  plump  and  rosy  in  this  temple  of  the 
winds.  The  high  metallic  ring  of  the  New  England 
voice  is  not  found  in  San  Francisco.  As  for  old  men, 
California  must  have  been  that  fabled  province  of 
Cathay,  the  virtues  of  which  were  such  that,  whatever 
a  man's  age  when  he  entered  it,  he  never  grew  older 
by  a  day.  To  dogs  and  strangers  there  are  drawbacks 
in  the  absence  of  winter:  dogs  are  muzzled  all  the 
year  round,  and  musquitoes  are  perennial  upon  the 
coast. 

The  city  is  gay  with  flags ;  every  house  supports  a 
liberty  pole  upon  its  roof,  for  when  the  Union  senti- 
ment sprang  up  in  San  Francisco,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  public  opinion  forced  the  citizens  to  make 
a  conspicuous  exhibition  of  the  stars  and  stripes,  by 
way  of  showing  that  it  was  from  no  want  of  loyalty 
that  they  refused  to  permit  the  circulation  of  the  Fed- 
eral greenbacks.  In  this  matter  of  flags  the  sea-gale 
is  of  service,  for  were  it  not  for  its  friendly  assistance, 
a  short  house  between  two  tall  ones  could  not  sport  a 
huge  flag  with  much  effect.  As  it  is,  the  wind  always 
blowing  across  the  chief  streets,  and  never  up  or  down, 
the  narrowest  and  lowest  house  can  flaunt  a  large 


214  GEE  ATE  E   BRITAIN. 

ensign  without  fear  of  its  ever  flapping  against  the 
walls  of  its  proud  neighbors. 

It  is  not  only  in  rosy  cheeks  that  the  Californian 
English  have  the  old-world  type.  With  less  ingenuity 
than  the  New  England  Yankees,  they  have  far  more 
depth  and  solidity  in  their  enterprise;  they  do  not 
rack  their  braki  at  inventing  machines  to  peel  apples 
and  milk  cows,  but  they  intend  to  tunnel  through  the 
mountains  to  Lake  Tahoe,  tap  it,  and  with  its  waters 
irrigate  the  Californian  plains.  They  share  our  British 
love  for  cash  payments  and  good  roads;  they  one  and 
all  set  their  faces  against  repudiation  in  any  shape,  and 
are  strongly  for  what  they  call  arolling-up"  the  debt. 
Throughout  the  war  they  quoted  paper  as  depreciated, 
not  gold  as  risen.  Indeed,  there  is  here  the  same  un- 
reasoning prejudice  against  paper  money  that  I  met 
with  in  Nevada.  After  all,  what  can  be  expected  of  a 
State  which  still  produces  three-eighths  of  all  the  gold 
raised  yearly  in  the  world  ? 

San  Francisco  is  inhabited,  as  all  American  cities 
bid  fair  to  be,  by  a  mixed  throng  of  men  of  all  lands 
beneath  the  sun.  New  Englanders  and  Englishmen 
predominate  in  energy,  Chinese  in  numbers.  The 
French  and  Italians  are  stronger  here  than  in  any  other 
city  in  the  States ;  and  the  red-skinned  Mexicans,  who 
own  the  land,  supply  the  market  people  and  a  small 
portion  of  the  townsfolk.  Australians,  Polynesians, 
and  Chilians  are  numerous;  the  Germans  and  Scan- 
dinavians alone  are  few;  they  prefer  to  go  where  they 
have,  already  friends — to  Philadelphia  or  Milwaukee. 
In  this  city — already  a  microcosm  of  the  world — the 
English,  British,  and  American  are  in  possession  — 
have  distanced  the  Irish,  beaten  down  the  Chinese  by 
force,  and  are  destined  to  physically  preponderate  in 
the  cross-breed,  and  give  the  tone,  political  and  moral, 


GOLDEN   CITY.  215 

to  the  Pacific  shore.  New  York  is  Irish,  Philadelphia 
German,  Milwaukee  .Norwegian,  Chicago  Canadian, 
Sault  de  Ste  Marie  French;  but  in  San  Francisco — 
where  all  the  foreign  races  are  strong — none  is  domi- 
nant j  whence  the  singular  result  that  California,  the 
most  mixed  in  population,  is  also  the  most  English  of 
the  States. 

In  this  strange  community,  starting  more  free  from 
the  Puritan  influence  of  New  England  than  has  hitherto 
done  any  State  within  the  Union,  it  is  doubtful  what 
religion  will  predominate.  Catholicism  is  "  not  fash- 
ionable" in  America — it  is  the  creed  of  the  Irish,  and 
that  is  enough  for  most  Americans;  so  Anglicanism, 
its  critics  say,  is  popular  as  being  "  very  proper." 
Whatever  the  cause,  the  Episcopalian  Church  is  flour- 
ishing in  California,  and  it  seems  probable  that  the 
church  which  gains  the  day  in  California  will  event- 
ually be  that  of  the  whole  Pacific. 

On  Montgomery  Street  are  some  of  the  finest  build- 
ings in  all  America;  the  "  Occidental  Hotel,"  the  "Ma- 
sonic Hall,"  the  "Union  Club,"  and  others.  The  club 
has  only  just  been  rebuilt  after  its  destruction  by  a 
nitro-glycerin  explosion  which  occurred  in  the  express 
office  next  door.  A  case,  of  which  no  one  knew  the 
contents,  was  being  lifted  by  two  clerks,  when  it  ex- 
ploded, blowing  down  a  portion  of  the  club,  and  break- 
ing half  the  windows  in  the  city.  On  examination  it 
was  found  to  be  nitro-glycerin  on  its  way  to  the  mines. 

Another  accident  occurred  here  yesterday  with  this 
same  compound.  A  sharp  report  was  heard  on  board 
a  ship  lying  in  the  docks,  and  the  cook  was  found 
dead,  below;  pieces  of  a  flask  had  been  driven  into  his 
heart  and  lungs.  The  deposit  on  the  broken  glass  was 
examined,  and  found  to  be  common  oil;  but  this  morn- 
ing, I  read  in  the  Alta  a  report  from  a  chemist  that 


216  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

'traces  of  nitro-glycerin  have  been  discovered  by  him 
upon  the  glass,  and  a  statement  from  one  of  the  hands 
says  that  the  ship  on  her  way  up  had  called  at  Manza- 
nilla,  where  the  cook  had  taken  the  flask  from  a  mer- 
chant's office,  emptied  it  of  its  contents,  the  character 
of  which  was  unknown  to  him,  and  tilled  it  with  com- 
mon,vegetable  oil. 

Since  the  great  explosion  at  Aspinwall,  nitro-glycerin 
has  been  the  nightmare  of  Californians.  For  earth- 
quakes they  care  little,  but  the  freaks  of  the  devilish 
oil,  which  is  brought  here  secretly,  for  use  in  the  Nevada 
mines,  have  made  them  ready  to  swear  that  it  is  itself 
a  demon.  They  tell  you  that  it  freezes  every  night,  and 
then  the  slightest  friction  will  explode  it — that,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  goes  off  if  heated.  If  you  leave  it  stand- 
ing in  ordinary  temperatures,  the  odds  are  that  it  un- 
dergoes decomposition,  and  then,  if  you  touch  it,  it 
explodes ;  and  no  lapse  of  time  has  on  its  power  the 
smallest  deteriorating  effect,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the 
oil  will  crystallize,  and  then  its  strength  for  harm  is 
multiplied  by  ten.  If  San  Francisco  is  ever  destroyed 
by  earthquake,  old  Californians  will  certainly  be  found 
to  ascribe  the  shock  to  nitro-glycerin. 

A  day  or  two  after  my  return  from  Benicia,  I  escaped 
from  the  city,  and  again  went  south,  halting  at  San 
Jose,  "  The  Garden  City,"  and  chief  town  of  the  fer- 
tile Guadalupe  district,  on  my- way  to  the  quicksilver 
mines  of  ISTew  Almaden,  now  the  greatest  in  the  world 
since  they  have  beaten  the  Spanish  mines  and  Idria. 
From  San  Jose*,  I  drove  myself  to  Almaden  along  a 
sun-dried  valley  with  a  fertile  tawny  soil,  reaching  the 
delicious  mountain  stream  and  the  groves  it  feeds  in 
time  to  join  my  friends  at  lunch  in  the  shady  hacienda. 
The  director  took  me  through  the  refining  works,  in 
which  the  quicksilver  may  be  seen  running  in  streams 


GOLDEN   CITY.  217 

down  gutters  from  the  furnaces,  but  he  was  unable  to 
go  with  me  up  the  mountain  to  the  mines  from  which 
the  cinnabar  comes  shooting  down  by  its  weight.  The 
superintendent  engineer — a  meerschaum-equipped  Ba- 
varian— and  myself  mounted,  at  the  Hacienda  Gate, 
upon  our  savage-looking  beasts,  and  I  found  myself 
for  the  first  time  lost  in  the  depths  of  a  Mexican  sad- 
dle, and  my  feet  plunged  into  the  boot-stirrups  that  I 
had  seen  used  by  the  TJtes  in  Denver.  The  riding  feats 
of  the  Mexicans  and  the  Californian  boys  are  explained 
when  you  find  that  their  saddle  puts  it  out  of  the  ques- 
tion that  they  should  be  thrown  ;  but  the  fatigue  that 
its  size  and  shape  cause  to  man  and  horse,  when  the 
man  is  a  stranger  to  New  Spain,  and  the  horse  knows 
that  he  is  so,  outweighs  any  possible  advantages  that 
it  may  possess.  With  their  huge  gilt  spurs,  attached 
to  the  stirrup,  not  to  the  boot,  the  double  peak,  and 
the  embroidered  trappings,  the  Mexican  saddles  are 
the  perfection  at  once  of  the  cumbersome  and  the 
picturesque. 

Silently  we  half  scrambled,  half  rode,  up  a  break-neck 
path  which  forms  a  short  cut  to  the  mine,  till  all  at 
once  a  charge  of  our  horses  at  an  almost  perpendicular 
wall  of  rock  was  followed  by  their  simultaneously  com- 
mencing to  kick  and  back  toward  the  cliff.  Spring- 
ing off,  we  found  that  the  girths  had  been  slackened 
by  the  Mexican  groom,  and  that  the  steep  bit  of  mount- 
ain had  caused  the  saddles  to  slip.  This  broke  the 
ice,  and  we  speedily  found  ourselves  discussing  miners 
and  mining  in  French,  my  German  not  being  much 
worse  than  my  Bavarian's  English. 

After  viewing  the  mines,  the  walls  of  which,  com- 
posed of  crimson  cinnabar,  show  bravely  in  the  torch- 
glare,  we  worked  our  way  through  the  tunnels  to  the 
topmost  lode  and  open  air. 

19 


218  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Bidding  good-by  to  what  I  could  see  of  my  German 
in  the  fog  from  his  meerschaum,  I  turned  to  ride  down 
by  the  road  instead  of  the  path.  I  had  not  gone  a 
furlong,  when,  turning  a  corner,  there  burst  upon  me 
a  view  of  the  whole  valley  of  tawny  California,  now 
richly  golden  in  the  colors  of  the  fall.  Looking  from 
this  spur  of  the  Santa  Cruz  Mountains,  with  the  Contra 
Costa  Range  before  me,  and  Mount  Hamilton  tower- 
ing from  the  plain,  apart,  I  could  discern  below  me 
the  gleam  of  the  Coyote  Creek,  and  of  the  windows  in 
the  church  of  Santa  Clara — in  the  distance,  the  mount- 
ains and  waters  of  San  Francisco  Bay,  from  San  Mateo 
to  Alameda  and  San  Pablo,  basking  in  unhindered 
sun.  The  wild  oats  dried  by  the  heat  made  of  the 
plain  a  field  of  gold,  dotted  here  and  there  with  groups 
of  black  oak  and  bay,  and  darkened  at'  the  mountain 
foot  with  "  chapparal."  The  volcanic  hills  were  rounded 
into  softness  in  the  delicious  haze,  and  all  nature  over- 
spread with  a  poetic  calm.  As  I  lost  the  view,  the 
mighty  fog  was  beginning  to  pour  in  through  the 
Golden  Gate  to  refresh  America  with  dews  from  the 
Pacific. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

LITTLE   CHINA. 

"THE  Indians  begin  to  be  troublesome  again  in 
Trinity  County.  One  man  and  a  Chinaman  have  been 
killed,  and  a  lady  crippled  for  life." 

That  the  antipathy  everywhere  exhibited  by  the 
English  to  colored  races  was  not  less  strong  in  Cali- 


LITTLE    CHINA.  219 

forma  than  in  the  Carolinas  I  had  suspected,  but  I  was 
hardly  prepared  for  the  deliberate  distinction  between 
men  and  yellow  men  drawn  in  this  paragraph  from  the 
Alta  Calif ornian  of  the  day  of  my  return  to  San  Francisco. 

A  determination  to  explore  Little  China,  as  the 
celestial  quarter  of  the  city  is  termed,  already  arrived 
at,  was  only  strengthened  by  the  unconscious  humor 
of  the  Alta,  and  I  at  once  set  off  in  search  of  two  of 
the  detectives,  Edes  and  Saulsbury,  to  whom  I  had 
some  sort  of  introduction,  and  put  myself  under  their 
charge  for  the  night. 

We  had  not  been  half  an  hour  in  the  Chinese  theater 
or  opera  house  before  my  detectives  must  have  re- 
pented of  their  offer  to  "show  me  around,"  for,  incom- 
prehensible as  it  must  have  seemed  to  them  with  their 
New  England  gravity  and  American  contempt  for  the 
Chinese,  I  was  amused  beyond  measure  with  the  per- 
formance, and  fairly  lost  myself  in  the  longest  laugh 
that  I  had  enjoyed  since  I  had  left  the  plantations  of 
Virginia. 

When  we  entered  the  house,  which  is  the  size  of  the 
Strand  Theater  of  London,  it  may  have  been  ten  or 
eleven  o'clock.  The  performance  had  begun  at  seven, 
and  was  likely  to  last  till  two  A.M.  By  the  "perform- 
ance" was  meant  this  particular  act  or  scene,  for  the 
piece  had  been  going  on  every  evening  for  a  month, 
and  would  be  still  in  progress  during  the  best  part  of 
another,  it  being  the  principle  of  the  Chinese  drama 
to  take  up  the  hero  at  an  early  age,  and  conduct  him 
to  the  grave,  which  he  reaches  full  of  years  and  of 
honor. 

The  house  was  crammed  with  a  grinning  crowd  of 
happy  "yellow  boys,"  while  the  "China  ladies"  had  a 
long  gallery  to  themselves.  No  sound  of  applause  is 
to  be  heard  in  a  Chinese  place  of  amusement,  but  the 


220  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

crowd  grin  delight  at  the  actors,  who,  for  their  part, 
grin  back  at  the  crowd. 

The  feature  of  the  performance  which  struck  me  at 
once  was  the  hearty  interest  the  actors  took  in  the 
play,  and  the  chaif  that  went  on  between  them  and 
the  pit;  it  is  not  only  from  their  numbers  and  the 
nature  of  their  trades  that  the  Chinese  may  be  called 
the  Irish  of  the  Pacific :  there  was  soul  in  every  ges- 
ture. 

On  the  stage,  behind  the  actors,  was  a  band,  which 
played  unceasingly,  and  so  loud  that  the  performers, 
who  clearly  had  not  the  smallest  intention  of  subordi- 
nating their  parts  to  the  music,  had  to  talk  in  shrieks 
in  order  to  be  heard.  The  audience,  too,  all  talked  in 
their  loudest  natural  tones. 

As  for  the  play,  a  lady  made  love  to  an  old  gentle- 
man (probably  the  hero,  as  this  was  the  second  month 
or  third  act  of  the  play),  and,  bawling  at  him  fiercely, 
W;as  indignantly  rejected  by  him  in  a  piercing  shriek. 
Relatives,  male  and  female,  coming  with  many  howls 
to  the  assistance  of  the  lady,  were  ignominiously  put 
to  flight,  in  a  high  falsetto  key,  by  the  old  fellow's 
footmen,  who  were  in  turn  routed  by  a  force  of  yelling 
spearmen,  apparently  the  county  posse.  The  soldiers 
wore  paint  in  rings  of  various  colors,  put  on  so  deftly, 
that  of  nose,  of  eyes,  of  mouth,  no  trace  could  be  dis- 
covered ;  the  front  face  resembled  a  target  for  archery. 
All  this  time,  a  steady,  unceasing  uproar  was  continued 
by  four  gongs  and  a  harp,  with  various  cymbals,  pavil- 
ions, triangles,  and  guitars. 

Scenery  there  was  none,  but  boards  were  put  up  in 
the  Elizabethan  way,  with  hieroglyphics  denoting  the 
supposed  locality ;  and  another  archaic  point  is,  that 
all  the  female  parts  were  played  by  boys.  For  this  I 
have  the  words  of  the  detectives ;  my  eyes,  had  I  not 


LITTLE    CHINA.  221 

long  since  ceased  to  believe  them,  would  have  given 
me  proof  to  the  contrary. 

The  acting,  as  far  as  I  could  judge  by  the  grimace, 
was  excellent.  Nowhere  could  be  found  greater 
spirit,  or  equal  power  of  facial  expression.  The  stage 
fight  was  full  of  pantomimic  force;  the  leading  soldier 
would  make  his  fortune  as  a  London  pantaloon. 

When  the  detectives  could  no  longer  contain  their 
distaste  for  the  performance,  we  changed  our  quarters 
for  a  restaurant — the  "Hang  Heong,"  the  wood  of 
which  was  brought  from  China. 

The  street  along  which  we  had  to  pass  was  decorated 
rather  than  lit  by  paper  lanterns  hung  over  every  door; 
but  the  "Hang  Heong"  was  brilliantly  illuminated, 
with  a  view,  no  doubt,  to  attracting  the  crowd  as  they 
poured  out  from  the  theater  at  a  later  hour.  The 
ground-floor  was  occupied  by  shop  and  kitchen,  the 
dining-rooms  being  up  stairs.  The  counter,  which 
is  on  the  plan  of  that  in  the  houses  of  the  Palais 
Royal,  was  presided  over,  not  by  a  smiling  woman, 
but  by  grave  and  pig-tailed  gentlemen  in  black,  who 
received  our  order  from  the  detective  with  the  decor- 
ous solemnity  of  the  head  waiter  in  an  English  country 
inn. 

The  rooms  up  stairs  were  nearly  full;  and  as  the 
Chinese  by  no  means  follow  the  Americans  in  silent 
eating,  the  babel  was  tremendous.  A  saucer  and  a 
pair  of  chopsticks  were  given  each  of  us,  but  at  our 
request  a  spoon  was  furnished  as  a  special  favor  to  the 
"  Melicans." 

Tiny  cups  of  a  sweet  spirit  were  handed  us  before 
supper  was  brought  up.  The  liquor  was  a  kind  of 
shrub,  but  white,  made,  I  was  told,  from  sugar-canes. 
For  first  course,  we  had  roast  duck  cut  in  pieces,  and 
served  in  an  oil-filled  bowl,  and  some  sort  of  fish  ;  tea 

19* 


222  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

was  then  brought  in,  and  followed  by  shark's  fin,  for 
which  I  had  given  a  special  order;  the  result  might 
have  been  gum  arabic  for  any  flavor  I  could  find.  Dog 
was  not  to  be  obtained,  and  birds'-nest  soup  was  be- 
yond the  purse  of  a  traveler  seven  thousand  miles 
from  home,  and  twelve  thousand  from  his  next  sup- 
plies. A  dish  of  some  strange,  black  fungus  stewed 
in  rice,  followed  by  preserves  and  cakes,  concluded 
our  supper,  and  were  washed  down  by  our  third  cups 
of  tea. 

After  paying  our  respects  and  our  money  to  the 
gentleman  in  black,  who  grunted  a  lugubrious  some- 
thing that  answered  to  agood  night,"  we  paid  a  visit 
to  the  Chinese  "bad  quarter,"  which  differs  only  in 
degree  of  badness  from  the  "quartier  Mexicain,"  the 
bad  pre-eminence  being  ascribed,  even  by  the  preju- 
diced detectives,  to  the  Spaniards  and  Chilenos. 

Hurrying  on,  we  reached  the  Chinese  gaming-houses 
just  before  they  closed.  Some  difficulty  was  made 
about  admitting  us  by  the  " yellow  loafers"  who  hung 
around  the  gate,  as  the  houses  are  prohibited  by  law; 
but  as  soon  as  the  detectives,  who  were  known,  ex- 
plained that  they  came  not  on  business,  but  on  pleasure, 
we  were  suffered  to  pass  in  among  the  silent,  melan- 
choly gamblers.  Not  a  word  was  heard,  beyond  every 
now  and  then  a  grunt  from  the  croupier.  Each  man 
knew  what  he  was  about,  and  won  or  lost  his  money 
in  the  stillness  of  a  dead-house.  The  game  appeared 
to  be  a  sort  of  loto ;  but  a  few  minutes  of  it  was  enough, 
and  the  detectives  pretended  to  no  deep  acquaintance 
with  its  principles. 

The  San  Francisco  Chinese  are  not  all  mere  theater- 
goers, loafers,  gamblers;  as  a  body  they  are  frugal, 
industrious,  contented  men.  I  soon  grew  to  think  it 
a  pleasure  to  meet  a  Chinese- American,  so  clean  and 


LITTLE    CHINA.  223 

happy  is  his  look:  not  a  speck  is  to  be  seen  upon  the 
blue  cloth  of  his  long  coat  or  baggy  trowsers.  His 
hair  is  combed  with  care;  the  bamboo  on  which  he 
and  his  mate  together  carry  their  enormous  load  seems 
as  though  cleansed  a  dozen  times  a  day. 

It  is  said  to  be  a  peculiarity  of  the  Chinese  that  they 
are  all  alike:  no  European  can,  without  he  has  deal- 
ings with  them,  distinguish  one  Celestial  from  another. 
The  same,  however,  may  be  said  of  the  Sikhs,  the 
Australian  natives,  of  most  colored  races,  in  short. 
The  points  of  difference  which  distinguish  the  yellow 
men,  the  red  men,  the  black  men  with  straight  hair, 
the  negroes,  from  any  other  race  whatever,  are  so  much 
more  prominent  than  the  minor  distinctions  between 
Ah  Sing  and  Chi  Long,  or  between  Uncle  Ned  and 
Uncle  Tom,  that  the  individual  are  sunk  and  lost  in 
the  national  distinctions.  To  the  Chinese  in  turn  all 
Europeans  are  alike;  but  beneath  these  obvious  facts 
there  lies  a  grain  of  solid  truth  that  is  worth  the  hunt- 
ing out,  and  which  is  connected  with  the  change-of- 
type  question  in  America  and  Australasia.  Men  of 
similar  habits  of  mind  and  body  are  alike  among  our- 
selves in  Europe;  noted  instances  are  the  close  resem- 
blance of  Pere  Enfantin,  the  St.  Simonian  chief,  to  the 
busts  of  Epicurus;  of  Bismarck  to  Cardinal  Ximenes. 
Irish  laborers — men  who  for  the  most  part  work  ha'rd, 
feed  little,  and  leave  their  minds  entirely  unplowed — 
are  all  alike ;  Chinamen,  who  all  work  hard,  and  work 
alike,  who  live  alike,  and  who  go  further,  and  all  think 
alike,  are,  by  a  mere  law  of  nature,  indistinguishable 
one  from  the  other. 

In  the  course  of  my  wanderings  in  the  Golden  City, 
I  lighted  on  the  house  of  the  Canton  Company,  one  of 
the  Chinese  benevolent  societies,  the  others  being  those 
of  Hong  Kong,  Macao,  and  Amoy.  They  are  like  the 


224  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

New  York  Immigration  Commission,  and  the  London 
"  Society  Frai^aise  de  Bienfaisance,"  combined;  added 
to  a  theater  and  joss-house,  or  temple,  and  governed  on 
the  principles  of  such  clubs  as  those  of  the  "  whites  " 
or  "greens  "  at  Heidelberg,  they  are,  in  short,  Chinese 
trades  unions,  sheltering  the  sick,  succoring  the  dis- 
tressed, finding  work  for  the  unemployed,  receiving 
the  immigrants  from  China  when  they  land,  and  ship- 
ping their  bones  back  to  China,  ticketed  with  name 
and  address,  when  they  die.  "  Hong  Kong,  with  dead 
Chinamen,"  is  said  to  be  a  common  answer  from  out- 
ward-bounders to  a  hail  from  the  guard-ship  at  the 
Golden  Gate. 

Some  of  the  Chinese  are  wealthy :  Tung  Yu  &  Co., 
Chi  Sing  Tong  &  Co.,  Wing  Wo  Lang  &  Co.,  Chy 
Lung  &  Co.,  stand  high  among  the  merchants  of  the 
Golden  City.  Honest  and  wealthy  as  these  men  are 
allowed  to  be,  they  are  despised  by  every  white  Cali- 
fornian,  from  the  governor  of  the  State  to  the  Mexican 
boy  who  cleans  his  shoes. 

In  America,  as  in  Australia,  there  is  a  violent  preju- 
dice against  John  Chinaman.  He  pilfers,  we  are  told ; 
he  lies,  he  is  dirty,  he  smokes  opium,  is  full  of  bestial 
vices — a  pagan,  and — what  is  far  more  important — 
yellow!  All  his  sins  are  to  be  pardoned  but  the  last. 
Californians,  when  in  good  humor,  will  admit  that  John 
is  sober,  patient,  peaceable,  and  hard  working,  that  his 
clothes  at  least  are  scrupulously  clean;  but  he  is  yellow ! 
Even  the  Mexicans,  themselves  despised,  look  down 
upon  the  Chinamen,  just  as  the  New  York  Irish  affect 
to  have  no  dealings  with  "  the  naygurs."  The  Chinese 
themselves  pander  to  the  feeling.  Their  famous  ap- 
peal to  the  Californian  Democrats  may  or  may  not  be 
true :  "  What  for  Democlat  allee  timee  talkee  dam 
Chinaman  ?  Chinaman  allee  samee  Democlat;  no  likee 


LITTLE    CHINA.  225 

nigger,  no  likeeinjun.",  "Infernals,"  "  Celestials,"  and 
"Greasers" — or  black  men,  yellow  men,  and  Mexicans 
— it  is  hard  to  say  which  are  most  despised  by  the 
American  whites  in  California. 

The  Chinaman  is  hated  by  the  rough  fellows  for  his 
cowardice.  Had  the  Chinese  stood  to  their  rights 
against  the  Americans,  they  would  long  since  have 
been  driven  from  California.  As  it  is,  here  and  in 
Victoria  they  invariably  give  way,  and  never  work  at 
diggings  which  are  occupied  by  whites.  Yet  in  both 
countries  they  take  out  mining  licenses  from  the  State, 
which  is  bound  to  protect  them  in  the  possession  of  the 
rights  thus  gained,  but  which  is  powerless  against  the 
rioters  of  Ballarat,  or  the  "  Anti- Chinese  mob  "  of  El 
Dorado. 

The  Chinese  in  California  are  practically  confined  by 
public  opinion,  violence,  or  threats,  to  inferior  kinds  ot 
work,  which  the  "  meanest "  of  the  whites  of  the  Pa- 
cific States  refuse  to  perform.  Politically,  this  is  slav- 
ery. All  the  evils  to  which  slavery  has  given  rise  in 
the  cotton  States  are  produced  here  by  violence,  in  a 
less  degree  only  because  the  Chinese  are  fewer  than 
were  the  negroes. 

In  spite  of  a  prejudice  which  recalls  the  time  when 
the  British  government  forbade  the  American  colo- 
nist to  employ  negroes  in  the  manufacture  of  hats, 
on  the  ground  that  white  laborers  could  not  stand  the 
competition,  the  yellow  men  continue  to  flock  to  the 
"  Gold  Hills,"  as  they  call  San  Francisco.  Already 
they  are  the  washermen,  sweepers,  and  porters  of 
three  States,  two  Territories,  and  British  Columbia. 
They  are  denied  civil  rights ;  their  word  is  not  taken 
in  cases  where  white  men  are  concerned ;  a  heavy  tax 
is  set  upon  them  on  their  entry  to  the  State;  a  second 
tax  when  they  commence  to  mine — still  their  numbers 


226  GEE  ATE  R   BRITAIN. 

steadily  increase.  In  1852,  Governor  Bigler,  in  his 
message,  recommended  the  prohibition  of  the  immi- 
gration of  the  Chinese,  but  they  now  number  one- 
tenth  of  the  population. 

The  Irish  of  Asia,  the  Chinese  have  commenced  to 
flow  over  on  to  the  outer  world.  "Who  shall  say  where 
the  flood  will  stop  ?  Ireland,  with  now  five  millions 
of  people,  has,  in  twenty  years,  poured  an  equal  num- 
ber out  into  the  world.  What  is  to  prevent  the  n-ext 
fifty  years  seeing  an  emigration  of  a  couple  of  hundreds 
of  millions  from  the  rebellion-torn  provinces  of  Cathay? 

Three  Chinamen  in  a  temperate  climate  will  do  as 
much  arm-work  as  two  Englishmen,  and  will  eat  or 
cost  less.  It  looks  as  though  the  cheaper  would  starve 
out  the  dearer  race,  as  rabbits  drive  out  stronger  but 
hungrier  hares.  This  tendency  is  already  plainly  visi- 
ble in  our  mercantile  marine:  the  ships  are  manned 
with  motley  crews  of  Bombay  lascars,  Maories,  Ne- 
groes, Arabs,  Chinamen,  Kroomen,  and  Malays.  There 
are  no  British  or  American  seamen  now,  except  boys 
who  are  to  be  quartermasters  some  day,  and  experi- 
enced hands  who  are  quartermasters  already.  But 
there  is  nothing  to  regret  in  this:  Anglo-Saxons  are 
too  valuable  to  be  used  as  ordinary  seamen  where  las- 
cars will  do  nearly,  and  Maories  quite  as  well.  Nature 
seems  to  intend  the  English  for  a  race  of  officers,  to 
direct  and  guide  the  cheap  labor  of  the  Eastern  peo- 
ples. 

The  serious  side  of  the  Chinese  problem — just 
touched  on  here — will  force  itself  rudely  upon  our 
notice  in  Australia. 


CALIFORNIA.  227 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

CALIFORNIA. 

"!N  front  of  San  Francisco  are  745  millions  of  hungry 
Asiatics,  who  have  spices  to  exchange  for  meat  and 
grain." 

The  words  are  Governor  Gilpin's,  made  use  of  by 
him  in  discussing  the  future  of  overland  trade,  and 
worthy  of  notice  as  showing  why  it  is  that,  in  making 
forecasts  of  the  future  of  California,  we  have  to  look 
more  to  her  facilities  for  trade  than  to  her  natural  pro- 
ductions. San  Francisco  aims  at  being,  not  so  much 
the  port  of  California  as  one  of  the  main  stations  on 
the  Anglo-Saxon  highway  round  the  globe. 

Although  the  chief  claim  of  California  to  consider- 
ation is  her  position  on  the  Pacific,  her  fertility  and 
size  alone  entitle  her  to  notice.  This  single  State  is 
750  miles  in  length — would  stretch  from  Chamouni  to 
the  southernmost  point  of  Malta.  There  are  two  capes 
in  California — one  nearly  in  the  latitude  of  Jerusalem, 
the  other  nearly  in  the  latitude  of  Rome.  The  State 
has  twice  the  area  of  Great  Britain ;  the  single  valley 
of  the  Joaqui'n  and  Sacramento,  from  Tulare  Lake  to 
the  great  snow-peak  of  Shasta,  is  as  large  as  the  three 
kingdoms.  Every  useful  mineral,  every  kind  of  fertile 
soil,  every  variety  of  helpful  climate,  are  to  be  found 
within  the  State.  There  are  in  the  Union  forty-five 
such  States  or  Territories,  with  an  average  area  equal 
to  that  of  Britain. 

Between  the  Pacific  and  the  snows  of  the  Sierra  are 


228  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

three  great  tracts,  each  with  its  soil  and  character. 
On  the  slopes  of  the  Sierra  are  the  forests  of  giant 
timher,  the  sheltered  valleys,  and  the  gold  fields  in 
which  I  spent  my  first  week  in  California.  Next  comes 
the  great  hot  plain  of  Sacramento,  where,  with  irriga- 
tion, all  the  hest  fruits  of  the  tropics  grow  luxuriantly, 
where  water  for  irrigation  is  plentiful,  and  the  Pacific 
breeze  will  raise  it.  Round  the  valley  are  vast  tracts 
for  sheep  and  wheat,  and  on  the  Contra  Costas  are 
millions  of  acres  of  wild  oats  growing  on  the  best  of 
lands  for  cattle,  while  the  slopes  are  covered  with 
young  vines.  Between  the  Contra  Costa  Range  and 
the  sea  is  a  winterless  strip,  possessing  for  table  vege- 
tables and  flowers  the  finest  soil  and  climate  in  the 
world.  The  story  goes  that  Californian  boys,  when 
asked  if  they  believe  in  a  future  state,  reply:  "Guess 
so;  California." 

Whether  San  Francisco  will  grow  to  be  a  second 
Liverpool  or  New  York  is  an  all-absorbing  question  to 
those  who  live  on  the  Pacific  shores,  and  one  not  with- 
out an  interest  and  a  moral  for  ourselves.  New  York 
has  waxed  rich  and  huge  mainly  because  she  is  so 
placed  as  to  command  one  of  the  best  harbors  on  the 
coast  of  a  country  which  exports  enormously  of  bread- 
stuffs.  Liverpool  has  thrived  as  one  of  the  shipping 
ports  for  the  manufactures  of  the  northern  coal  counties 
of  England.  San  Francisco  Bay,  as  the  best  harbor 
south  of  Puget  Sound,  is,  and  will  remain,  the  center 
of  the  export  trade  of  the  Pacific  States  in  wool  and 
cereals.  If  coal  is  found  in  plenty  in  the  Golden  State, 
population  will  increase,  manufactures  spring  up,  and 
the  export  of  wrought  articles  take  the  place  of  that  of 
raw  produce.  If  coal  is  found  in  the  Contra  Costa 
Range,  San  Francisco  will  continue,  in  spite  of  earth- 
quakes, to  be  the  foremost  port  on  the  Pacific  side ;  if, 


THE  BRIDAL  VEIL  FALL,  YOSEMITE  VALLEY.— P.  228 


Q3T 


I  L   CAPITAN,  YOSEMITE   VALLEY.— P.  228. 


OF 


CALIFORNIA.  229 

as  is  more  probable,  the  find  of  coal  is  confined  to  the 
Monte  Diablo  district,  and  is  of  trifling  value,  still  the 
future  of  San  Francisco,  as  the  meeting  point  of  the 
railways,  and  center  of  the  import  of  manufactured 
goods,  and  of  the  export  of  the  produce  of  an  agricul- 
tural and  pastoral  interior,  is  as  certain  as  it  must  in- 
evitably be  brilliant.  Whether  the  chief  town  of  the 
Pacific  States  will  in  time  develop  into  one  of  the  com- 
mercial capitals  of  the  world  is  a  wider  and  a  harder 
question.  That  it  will  be  the  converging  point  of  the 
Pacific  railroads,  both  of  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  That  all  the  new  overland  trade 
from  China  and  Japan  will  pass  through  it  seems  as 
fclear;  it  is  the  extent  of  this  trade  that  is  in  question. 
For  the  moment,  land  transit  cannot  compete  on  equal 
terms  with  water  carriage;  but  assuming  that,  in  the 
long  run,  this  will  cease  to  be  the  case,  it  will  be  the 
overland  route  across  Russia,  and  not  that  through  the 
United  States,  that  will  convey  the  silks  and  teas  of 
China  to  Central  and  Western  Europe.  The  very  argu- 
ments of  which  the  California!!  merchants  make  use 
to  show  that  the  delicate  goods  of  China  need  land 
transport,  go  to  prove  that  shipping  and  unshipping  in 
the  Pacific,  and  a  repetition  in  the  Atlantic  of  each 
process,  cannot  be  good  for  them.  The  political  im- 
portance to  America  of  the  Pacific  railroads  does  not 
admit  of  overstatement;  but  the  Russian  or  English 
Pacific  routes  must,  commercially  speaking,  win  the 
day.  For  rare  and  costly  Eastern  goods,  the  English 
railway  through  Southern  China,  Upper  India,  the 
Persian  coast,  and  the  Euphrates  is  no  longer  now  a 
dream.  If  Russian  bureaucracy  takes  too  long  to  move, 
trade  will  be  diverted  by  the"  Gulf  route ;  coarser  goods 
and  food  will  long  continue  to  come  by  sea,  but  in  no 

20 


230  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

case  can  the  City  of  San  Francisco  become  a  western 
outpost  of  Europe. 

The  luster  of  the  future  of  San  Francisco  is  not 
dimmed  by  considerations  such  as  these  ;  as  the  port  of 
entry  for  the  trade  of  America,  with  all  the  East,  its 
wealth  must  become  enormous ;  and  if,  as  is  probable, 
Japan,  New  Zealand,  and  K~ew  South  Wales  become 
great  manufacturing  communities,  San  Francisco  must 
needs  in  time  take  rank  as  a  second,  if  not  a  greater, 
London.  This,  however,  is  the  more  distant  future. 
With  cheaper  labor  than  the  Pacific  States  and  the 
British  colonies  possess,  with  a  more  settled  govern- 
ment than  Japan — Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  from  the 
time  that  the  Pacific  railroad  is  completed,  will  take, 
and  for  years  will  keep,  the  China  trade.  As  for  the 
colonies,  the  voyage  from  San  Francisco  to  Australia 
is  almost  as  long  and  difficult  as  that  from  England, 
and  there  is  every  probability  that  Lancaster  and  Bel- 
gium will  continue  to  supply  the  colonists  with  clothes 
and  tools,  until  they  themselves,  possessed  as  they  are 
of  coal,  become  competent  to- make  them.  The  mer- 
chants of  San  Francisco  will  be  limited  in  the  main  to 
the  trade  with  China  and  Japan.  In  this  direction  the 
future  has  no  bounds :  through  California  and  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  through  Japan,  fast  becoming 
American,  and  China,  the  coast  of  which  is  already 
British,  our  race  seems  marching  westward  to  univer- 
sal rule.  The  Eussian  empire  itself,  with  all  its  passive 
strength,  cannot  stand  against  the  English  horde,  ever 
pushing  with  burning  energy  toward  the  setting  sun. 
Russia  and  England  are  said  to  be  nearing  each  other 
upon  the  Indus ;  but  long  before  they  can  meet  there, 
they  will  be  face  to  face  upon  the  Amoor. 

For  a  time,  the  flood  may  be  diverted  south  or  north : 
Mexico  will  doubtless,  and  British  Columbia  will  pro- 


CALIFORNIA.  231 

bably,  carry  off  a  portion  of  the  thousands  who  are 
pouring  West  from  the  bleak  rocks  of  New  England. 
The  Californian  expedition  of  1853  against  Sonora  and 
Lower  California  will  be  repeated  with  success,  but  the 
tide  will  be  but  momentarily  stayed.  So  entirely  are 
English  countries  now  the  motherlands  of  energy  and 
adventure  throughout  the  world,  that  no  one  who  has 
watched  what  has  happened  in  California,  in  British 
Columbia,  and  on  the  west  coast  of  New  Zealand,  can 
doubt  that  the  discovery  of  placer  gold  fields  on  any 
coast  or  in  any  sea-girt  country  in  the  world,  must  now 
be  followed  by  the  speedy  rise  there  of  an  English  gov- 
ernment :  were  gold,  for  instance,  found  in  surface  dig- 
gings in  Japan,  Japan  would  be  English  in  five  years. 
We  know  enough  of  Chili,  of  the  new  Russian  country 
on  the  Amoor,  of  Japan,  to  be  aware  that  such  dis- 
coveries are  more  than  likely  to  occur. 

In  the  face  of  facts  like  these,  men  are  to  be  found 
who  ask  whether  a  break-up  of  the  Union  is  not  still 
probable — whether  the  Pacific  States  are  not  likely  to 
secede  from  the  Atlantic ;  some  even  contend  for  the 
general  principle  that  "  America  must  go  to  pieces — 
she  is  to  big."  It  is  small  powers,  not  great  ones,  that 
have  become  impossible :  the  unification  of  Germany 
is  in  this  respect  but  the  dawn  of  a  new  era.  The  great 
countries  of  to-day  are  smaller  than  were  the  smallest 
of  a  hundred  years  ago.  Lewes  was  farther  from  Lon- 
don in  1700  than  Edinburgh  is  now.  New  York  and 
San  Francisco  will  in  1870  be  nearer  to  each  other  than 
Canton  and  Pekin.  From  the  point  of  view  of  mere 
size,  there  is  more  likelihood  of  England  entering  the 
Union  than  of  California  seceding  from  it. 

The  material  interests  of  the  Pacific  States  will  al- 
ways lie  in  union.  The  West,  sympathizing  in  the 
main  with  the  Southerners  upon  the  slavery  question, 


232  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

threw  herself  into  the  war,  and  crushed  them,  because 
she  saw  the  necessity  of  keeping  her  outlets  under  her 
own  control.  The  same  policy  would  hold  good  for 
the  Pacific  States  in  the  case  of  the  continental  rail- 
road. America,  of  all  countries,  alone  shares  the  fu- 
ture of  both  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  and  she  knows  her 
interests  too  well  to  allow  such  an  advantage  to  be 
thrown  away.  Uncalculating  rebellion  of  the  Pacific 
States  upon  some  sudden  heat,  is  the  only  danger  to  be 
apprehended,  and  such  a  rising  could  be  put  down  with 
ease,  owing  to  the  manner  in  which  these  States  are 
commanded  from  the  sea.  Throughout  the  late  rebel- 
lion, the  Federal  navy,  though  officered  almost  entirely 
by  Southerners,  was  loyal  to  the  flag,  and  it  would  be 
so  again.  In  these  days,  loyalty  may  be  said  to  be 
peculiarly  the  sailor's  passion :  perhaps  he  loves  his 
country  because  he  sees  so  little  of  it. 

The  single  danger  that  looms  in  the  more  distant  fu- 
ture is  the  eventual  control  of  Congress  by  the  Irish, 
while  the  English  retain  their  hold  on  the  Pacific  shores. 

******* 

California  is  too  British  to  be  typically  American : 
it  would  seem  that  nowhere  in  the  United  States  have 
we  found  the  true  America  or  the  real  American. 
Except  as  abstractions,  they  do  not  exist ;  it  is  only 
by  looking  carefully  at  each  eccentric  and  irregular 
America — at  Irish  New  York,  at  Puritan  New  Eng- 
land, at  the  rowdy  South,  at  the  rough  and  swaggering 
far  West,  at  the  cosmopolitan  Pacific  States — that  we 
come  to  reject  the  anomalous  features,  and  to  find 
America  in  the  points  they  possess  in  common.  It  is 
when  the  country  is  left  that  there  rises  in  the  mind 
an  image  that  soars  above  all  local  prejudice — that  of 
the  America  of  the  law-abiding,  mighty  people  who  are 
imposing  English  institutions  on  the  world. 


MEXICO.  233 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

MEXICO. 

IN  company  with  a  throng  of  men  of  all  races,  all 
tongues,  and  all  trades,  such  as  a  Californian  steamer 
can  alone  collect,  I  came  coasting  southward  under  the 
cliffs  of  Lower  California.  Of  the  thousand  passen- 
gers who  sought  refuge  from  the  stifling  heat  upon  the 
upper  and  hurricane  decks,  more  than  half  were  dig- 
gers returning  with  a  "pile"  to  their  homes  in  the  At- 
lantic States.  While  we  hung  over  the  bulwarks 
watching  the  bonitos  and  the  whales,  the  diggers  threw 
"bolas"  at  the  boobies  that  flew  out  to  us  from  the 
blazing  rocks,  and  brought  them  down  screaming  upon 
the  decks.  Threading  our  way  through  the  reefs  off 
the  lovely  Island  of  Margarita,  where  the  "Independ- 
ence" was  lost  with  three  hundred  human  beings,  we 
lay-to  at  Cape  St.  Lucas,  and  landed  his  Excellency 
Don  Antonio  Pedrin,  Mexican  G  overnor  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia, and  a  Juarez  man,  in  the  very  bay  where  Caven- 
dish lay  in  wait  for  months  for  the  "  great  Manilla 
ship" — the  Acapulco  galleon. 

When  Girolamo  Benzoni  visited  the  Mexican  Pacific 
coast,  he  confused  the  turtle  with  the  "  crocodile,"  de- 
scribing the  former  under  the  latter's  name ;  but  at 
Manzanilla,  the  two  may  be  seen  lying  almost  side 
by  side  upon  the  sands.  Separated  from  the  blue 
waters  of  the  harbor  by  a  narrow  strand  there  is  a  fes- 
tering lagoon,  the  banks  of' which  swarm  with  the 

20* 


234  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

smaller  alligators ;  but  a  few  yards  off,  upon  the  other 
slope,  the  townsfolk  and  the  turtles  they  had  brought 
down  for  sale  to  our  ship's  purser  were  lying,  when  I 
saw  them,  in  a  confused  heap  under  an  awning  of  sail- 
cloth nailed  up  to  the  palm-trees.  Alligator,  turtle, 
Mexican,  it  was  hard  to  say  which  was  the  superior 
being.  A  French  corvette  was  in  possession  of  the 
port — one  of  the  last  of  the  holding-places  through 
which  the  remnants  of  the  army  of  occupation  were 
dribbling  back  to  France. 

In  the  land-locked  bay  of  Acapulco,  one  of  the  dozen 
"hottest  places  in  the  world,"  we  found  two  French 
frigates,  whose  officers  boarded  us  at  once.  They  told 
us  that  they  landed  their  marines  every  morning  aftepr 
breakfast,  and  re-embarked  them  before  sunset ;  they 
could  get  nothing  from  the  shore  but  water ;  the  Mex- 
icans, under  Alvarez,  occupied  the  town  at  night,  and 
carried  off  even  the  fruit.  When  I  asked  about  sup- 
plies, the  answer  was  sweeping:  "  Ah,  mon  Dieu,  mon- 
sieur, cette  ssacrrreeee  canaille  de  Alvarez  nous  vole 
tout.  Nous  n'avons  que  de  1'eau  fraiche,  et  Alvarez 
va  nous  emporter  la  fontaine  aussi  quelque  nuit  Ce 
sont  des  voleurs,  voyez-vous,  ces  Me'chicanos."  When 
they  granted  us  leave  to  land,  it  was  with  the  proviso 
that  we  should  not  blame  them  if  we  were  shot  at  by 
the  Mexicans  as  we  went  ashore,  and  by  themselves  as 
we  came  oft'  again.  Firing  often  takes  place  at  night 
between  Alvarez  and  the  French,  but  with  a  total  loss 
in  many  months  of  only  two  men  killed. 

The  day  of  my  visit  to  Acapulco  was  the  annjver- 
sary  of  the  issue,  one  year  before,  of  Marshal  Bazaine's 
famous  order  of  the  day,  directing  the  instant  execu- 
tion, as  red-handed  rebels,  of  Mexican  prisoners  taken 
by  the  French.  It  is  a  strange  commentary  upon  the 
Marshal's  circular  that  in  a  year  from  its  issue  the 


MEXICO.  235 

"Latin  empire  in  America"  should  have  had  a  term 
set  to  it  by  the  President  of  the  United  States.  In 
Canada,  in  India,  in  Egypt,  in  New  Zealand,  the  Eng- 
lish have  met  the  French  abroad,  and  in  this  Mexican 
affair  history  does  but  repeat  itself.  There  is  nothing 
more  singular  to  the  Londoner  than  the  contempt  of 
the  Americans  for  France.  All  Europe  seems  small 
when  seen  from  the  United  States;  but  the  opinion  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  strength  of  Russia  are  still  looked 
on  with  some  respect:  France  alone  completely  van- 
ishes, and  instead  of  every  one  asking,  as  with  us, 
"What  does  the  Emperor  say?"  no  one  cares  in  the 
least  what  Napoleon  does  or  thinks.  In  a  Chicago 
paper  I  have  seen  a  column  of  Washington  news  headed, 
"  Seward  orders  Lewis  Napoleon  to  leave  Mexico  right 
away !  Nap.  lies  badly  to  get  out  of  the  fix !"  While 
the  Americans  are  still,  in  a  high  degree,  susceptible 
of  affront  from  England,  and  would  never,  if  they  con- 
ceived themselves  purposely  insulted,  stop  to  weigh 
the  cost  of  war,  toward  France  they  only  feel,  as  a 
California!!  said  to  me,  "Is  it  worth  our  while  to  set  to 
work  to  whip  her?"  The  effect  of  Gettysburg  and 
Sadowa  will  be  that,  except  Great  Britain,  Italy,  and 
Spain,  no  nations  will  care  much  for  the  threats  or 
praises  of  Imperial  France. 

The  true  character  of  the  struggle  in  Mexico  has  not 
been  pointed  out.  It  was  not  a  mere  conflict  between 
the  majority  of  the  people  and  a  minority  supported 
by  foreign  aid,  but  an  uprising  of  the  Indians  of  the 
country  against  the  whites  of  the  chief  town.  The 
Spaniards  of  the  capital  were  Maximilian's  supporters, 
and  upon  them  the  Indians  and  Mestizos  have  visited 
their  revenge  for  the  deeds  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro.  On 
the  west  coast  there  is  to  be  seen  no  trace  of  Spanish 
blood:  in  dress,  in  language,  in  religion  the  people 


236  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

are  Iberian ;  in  features,  in  idleness,  and  in  ferocity, 
undoubtedly  Red  Indian. 

In  the  reports  of  the  Argentine  Confederation  it  is 
stated  that  the  Caucasian  blood  comes  to  the  front  in 
the  mixed  race ;  a  few  hundred  Spanish  families  in  La 
Plata  are  said  to  have  absorbed  several  hundred  thou- 
sand Indians,  without  suffering  in  their  whiteness  or 
other  national  characteristics.  There  is  something  of 
the  frog  that  swallowed  the  ox  in  this ;  and  the  theories 
of  the  Argentine  officials,  themselves  of  the  mixed 
race,  cannot  outweigh  the  evidence  of  our  own  eyes  in 
the  seaport  towns  of  Mexico.  There  at  least  it  is  the 
Spaniards,  not  the  Indians,  who  have  disappeared ;  and 
the  only  mixture  of  blood  that  can  be  traced  is  that  of 
Red  Indian  and  negro  in  the  fisher  boys  about  the 
ports.  They  are  lithe  lads,  with  eyes  full  of  art  and 
tire. 

The  Spaniards  of  Mexico  have  become  Red  Indians, 
as  the  Turks  of  Europe  have  become  Albanians  or 
Circassians.  Where  the  conquering  marries  into  the 
conquered  race  it  ends  by  being  absorbed,  and  the 
mixed  breed  gradually  becomes  pure  again  in  the  type 
of  the  more  numerous  race.  It  would  seem  that  the 
North  American  continent  will  soon  be  divided  be- 
tween the  Saxon  and  the  Aztec  republics. 

In  California  I  once  met  with  a  caricature  in  which 
Uncle  Sam  or  Brother  Jonathan  is  lying  on  his  back 
upon  Canada  and  the  United  States,  with  his  head  in 
Russian  America,  and  his  feet  against  a  tumble- down 
fence,  behind  which  is  Mexico.  His  knees  are  bent, 
and  his  position  cramped.  He  says,  "Guess  I  shall 
soon  have  to  stretch  my  legs  some!"  There  is  not  in 
the  United  States  any  strong  feeling  in  favor  of  the 
annexation  of  the  remainder  of  the  continent,  but  there 
is  a  solemn  determination  that  no  foreign  country  shall 


MEXICO.  237 

in  any  way  gain  fresh  footing  or  influence  upon  Amer- 
ican soil,  and  that  monarchy  shall  not  be  established 
in  Mexico  or  Canada.  Further  than  this,  there  is  a 
belief  that,  as  the  south  central  portions  of  the  States 
become  fully  peopled  up,  population  will  pour  over 
into  the  Mexican  provinces  of  Chihuahua  and  Sonora, 
and  that  the  annexation  of  these  and  some  other  por- 
tions of  Mexico  to  the  United  States  cannot  long  be 
prevented.  For  such  acquisitions  of  territory  America 
would  pay  as  she  paid  in  the  case  of  Texas,  which  she 
first  conquered,  and  then  bought  at  a  fair  price. 

In  annexing  the  whole  of  Mexico,  Protestant  Ameri- 
cans would  feel  that  they  were  losing  more  than  they 
could  gain.  In  California  and  New  Mexico,  they  have 
already  to  deal  with  a  population  of  Mexican  Catho- 
lics, and  difficulties  have  arisen  in  the  matter  of  the 
church  lands.  The  Catholic  vote  is  powerful  not 
only  in  California  and  New  York,  but  in  Maryland, 
in  Louisiana,  in  Kansas,  and  even  in  Massachusetts. 
The  sons  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  would  scarcely  look 
with  pleasure  on  the  admission  to  the  Union  of  ten 
millions  of  Mexican  Catholics,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  day-dreams  of  Leonard  Calvert  would  not  be  re- 
alized in  the  triumph  of  such  a  Catholicism  as  theirs 
any  more  than  in  the  success  of  that  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Academy,  or  New  York  Tammany  Hall. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Irish,  the  great  majority 
of  Catholic  emigrants  avoid  the  United  States,  but  the 
migration  of  European  Catholics  to  South  America  is 
increasing  year  by  year.  Just  as  the  Germans,  the 
Norwegians,  and  the  Irish  flow  toward  the  States,  the 
French,  the  Spanish,  and  the  Italians  flock  into  La 
Plata,  Chili,  and  Brazil.  The  European  population 
of  La  Plata  has  already  reached  three  hundred  thou- 
sand, and  is  growing  fast.  The  French  "  mission  "  in 


238  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Mexico  was  the  making  of  that  great  country  a  further 
field  for  the  Latin  immigration ;  and  when  the  Cali- 
fornians  marched  to  Juarez's  help,  it  was  to  save  Mexico 
to  North  America. 

In  all  history,  nothing  can  be  found  more  dignified 
than  the  action  of  America  upon  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
Since  the  principle  was  first  laid  down  in  words,  in 
1823,  the  national  behavior  has  been  courteous,  con- 
sistent, firm ;  and  the  language  used  now  that  America 
is  all-powerful,  is  the  same  that  her  statesmen  made 
use  of  during  the  rebellion  in  the  hour  of  her  most 
instant  peril.  It  will  be  hard  for  political  philosophers 
of  the  future  to  assert  that  a  democratic  republic  can 
have  no  foreign  policy. 

The  Pacific  coast  of  Mexico  *is  wonderfully  full  of 
beauties  of  a  peculiar  kind;  the  sea  is  always  calm, 
and  of  a  deep  dull  blue,  with  turtles  lying  basking  on 
the  surface,  and  flying-fish  skimming  lightly  over  its 
expanse,  while  the  shores  supply  a  fringe  of  bright 
yellow  sand  at  once  to  the  ocean  blue  and  to  the  rich 
green  of  the  cactus  groves.  On  every  spit  or  sand-bar 
there  grows  the  feathery  palm.  A  low  range  of  jungle- 
covered  hills  is  cut  by  gullies,  through  which  we  get 
glimpses  of  lagoons  bluer  than  the  sea  itself,  and  be- 
hind them  the  sharp  volcanic  peaks  rise  through  and 
into  cloud.  Once  in  awhile,  Colima,  or  other  giant 
hill,  towering  above  the  rest  in  blue-black  gloom, 
serves  to  show  that  the  shores  belong  to  some  mightier 
continent  than  Calypso's  isle. 


REPUBLICAN  OR   DEMOCRAT.  239 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

REPUBLICAN   OR   DEMOCRAT. 

\ 

AMONG  our  Californian  passengers,  we  had  many 
strong  party  men,  and  political  conversation  never 
flagged  throughout  the  voyage.  In  every  discussion 
it  became  more  and  more  clear  that  the  Democratic  is 
the  Constitutional,  the  Republican  the  Utilitarian 
party — rightly  called  "Radical,"  from  its  habit  of 
going  to  the  root  of  things,  to  see  whether  they  are 
good  or  bad.  Such,  however,  is  the  misfortune  of 
America  in  the  possession  of  a  written  Constitution, 
such  the  reverence  paid  to  that  document  on  account 
of  the  character  of  the  men  who  penned  it,  that 
even  the  extremest  radicals  dare  not  admit  in  public 
that  they  aim  at  essential  change,  and  the  party  loses, 
in  consequence,  a  portion  of  the  strength  that  attaches 
to  outspoken  honesty. 

The  President's  party  at  their  convention — known 
as  the  "Wigwam  " — which  met  while  I  was  in  Phila- 
delphia, maintained  that  the  war  had  but  restored  the 
"  Union  as  it  was,"  with  State  rights  unimpaired.  The 
Republicans  say  that  they  gave  their  blood,  as  they 
are  ready  again  to  shed  it,  for  the  "  Union  as  it  was 
not;"  for  one  nation,  and  not  for  thirty-six,  or  forty- 
five.  The  Wigwam  declared  that  the  Washington 
gove  nment  had  no  constitutional  right  to  deny  rep- 
resentation in  Congress  to  any  State.  The  Republicans 
ask  how,  if  this  constitutional  provision  is  to  be  ob- 
served, the  government  of  the  country  is  to  be  carried 


240  GREATEE   BRITAIN. 

on.  The  Wigwam  laid  it  down  as  a  principle,  that 
Congress  has  no  power  to  interfere  with  the  right  pos- 
sessed by  each  State  to  prescribe  qualifications  for  the 
elective  franchise.  The  Radicals  say  that  State  sover- 
eignty should  have  vanished  when  slavery  went  down, 
and  ask  how  the  South  is  to  be  governed  consistently 
with  republicanism  unless  by  negro  suffrage,  and  how 
th?s  is  to  be  maintained  except  by  Federal  control  over 
the  various  States — by  abolition,  in  short,  of  the  old 
Union,  and  creation  of  a  new.  The  more  honest 
among  the  Republicans  admit  that  for  the  position 
which  they  have  taken  up,  they  can  find  no  warrant  in 
the  Constitution ;  that,  according  to  the  doctrine  which 
the  "continental  statesmen"  and  the  authors  of  "The 
Federalist"  would  lay  down,  were  they  living,  thirty- 
five  of  the  States,  even  if  they  were  unanimous,  could 
have  no  right  to  tamper  with  the  constitution  of  the 
thirty-sixth.  The  answer  to  all  this  can  only  be  that, 
were  the  Constitution  to  be  closely  followed,  the  result 
would  be  the  ruin  of  the  land. 

The  Republican  party  have  been  blamed  because 
their  theory  and  practice  alike  tend  toward  a  consoli- 
dation of  power,  and  a  strengthening  of  the  hands  of 
the  government  at  Washington.  It  is  in  this  that  lies 
their  chief  claim  to  support.  Local  government  is  an 
excellent  thing;  it  is  the  greatest  of  the  inventions  of 
our  inventive  race,  the  chief  security  for  continued 
freedom  possessed  by  a  people  already  free.  This 
local  government  is  consistent  with  a  powerful  execu- 
tive; between  the  village  municipality  and  Congress, 
between  the  cabinet  and  the  district  council  of  select- 
men, there  can  be  no  conflict:  it  is  State  sovereignty, 
and  the  pernicious  heresy  of  primary  allegiance  to  the 
State,  that  have  already  proved  as  costly  to  the  Repub- 
lic as  they  are  dangerous  to  her  future. 


REPUBLICAN  OR   DEMOCRAT.  241 

It  has  been  said  that  America,  under  the  Federal 
system,  unites  the  freedom  of  the  small  State  with  the 
power  of  the  great ;  but  though  this  is  true,  it  is  brought 
about,  not  through  the  federation  of  the  States,  but 
through  that  of  the  townships  and  districts.  The  latter 
are  the  true  units  to  which  the  consistent  Republican 
owes  his  secondary  allegiance.  It  is,  perhaps,  only  in 
the  tiny  New  England  States  that  Northern  men  care 
much  about  their  commonwealth ;  a  citizen  of  Penn- 
sylvania or  New  York  never  talks  of  his  State,  unless 
to  criticise  its  legislature.  After  all,  where  intelligence 
and  education  are  all  but  universal,  where  a  spirit  of 
freedom  has  struck  its  roots  into  the  national  heart  of 
a  great  race,  there  can  be  no  danger  in  centralization, 
for  the  power  that  you  strengthen  is  that  of  the  whole 
people,  and  a  nation  can  have  nothing  to  fear  from 
itself. 

In  watching  the  measures  of  the  Radicals,  we  must 
remember  that  they  have  still  to  guard  their  country 
against  great  dangers.  The  war  did  not  last  long 
enough  to  destroy  anti-republicanism  along  with 
slavery.  The  social  system  of  the  Carolinas  was  up- 
set; but  the  political  fabric  built  upon  a  slavery  foun- 
dation in  such  "free"  States  as  New  York  and  Mary- 
land is  scarcely  shaken. 

If  we  look  to  the  record  of  the  Republican  party  with 
a  view  to  making  a  forecast  of  its  future  conduct,  we 
find  that  at  the  end  of  the  war  the  party  had  before  it 
the  choice  between  military  rule  and  negro  rule  for  the 
South  —  between  a  government  carried  on  through 
generals  and  provost-marshals,  unknown  to  the  Consti- 
tution and  to  the  courts,  and  destined  to  prolong  for 
ages  the  disruption  of  the  Union  and  disquiet  of  the 
nation,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  rule  founded  upon 
the  principles  of  equity  and  self-government,  dear  to 

21 


242  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

our  race,  and  supported  by  local  majorities,  not  by  for- 
eign bayonets.  Although  possessed  of  the  whole  mili- 
tary power  of  the  nation,  the  Republicans  refuse  to  en- 
danger their  country,  and  established  a  system  intended 
to  lead  by  gradual  steps  to  equal  suffrage  in  the  South. 
The  immediate  interest  of  the  party,  as  distinguished 
from  that  of  the  country  at  large,  was  the  other  way. 
The  Republican  majority  of  the  presidential  elections 
of  1860  and  1864  had  been  increased  by  the  success  of 
the  Federal  arms,  borne  mainly  by  the  Republicans  of 
New  England  and  the  West,  in  a  war  conducted  to  a 
triumphant  issue  under  the  leadership  of  Republican 
Congressmen  and  generals.  The  apparent  magna- 
nimity of  the  admission  of  a  portion  of  the  rebels, 
warm-handed,  to  the  poll,  would  still  further  have 
strengthened  the  Republicans  in  the  Western  and  Bor- 
der States;  and  while  the  extreme  wing  would  not 
have  dared  to  desert  the  party,  the  moderate  men 
would  have  been  conciliated  by  the  refusal  of  the  fran- 
chise to  the  blacks.  A  foresight  of  the  future  of  the 
nation  happily  prevailed  over  a  more  taking  policy, 
and,  to  the  honor  of  the  Republican  leaders,  equal  fran- 
chise was  the  result. 

The  one  great  issue  between  the  Radicals  and  the 
Democrats  since  the  conclusion  of  the  war  is  this :  the 
"  Democracy"  deny  that  the  readmission  to  Congress 
of  the  representatives  of  the  Southern  States  is  a  mat- 
ter of  expediency  at  all ;  to  them  they  declare  that  it 
is  a  matter  of  right.  There  was  a  rebellion  in  certain 
States  which  temporarily  prevented  their  sending  rep- 
resentatives;  it  is  over,  and  their  men  must  come. 
Either  the  Union  is  or  is  not  dissolved ;  the  Radicals 
admit  that  it  is  not,  that  all  their  endeavors  were  to 
prevent  the  Union  being  destroyed  by  rebels,  and  that 
they  succeeded  in  so  doing.  The  States,  as  States,  were 


REPUBLICAN  OR  DEMOCRAT.  243 

never  in  rebellion ;  there  was  only  a  powerful  rebel- 
lion localized  in  certain  States.  "  If  you  admit,  then," 
say  the  Democrats,  "  that  the  Union  is  not  dissolved, 
how  can  you  govern  a  number  of  States  by  major- 
generals?"  Meanwhile  the  Radicals  go  on,  not  wast- 
ing their  time  in  words,  but  passing  through  the  House 
and  over  the  President's  veto  the  legislation  necessary 
for  the  reconstruction  of  free  government — with  their 
illogical,  but  thoroughly  English,  good  sense,  avoiding 
all  talk  about  constitutions  that  are  obsolete,  and  laws 
that  it  is  impossible  to  enforce,  and  pressing  on  steadily 
to  the  end  that  they  have  in  view  :  equal  rights  for  all 
men,  free  government  as  soon  as  may  be.  The  one 
thing  to  regret  is,  that  the  Republicans  have  not  the 
courage  to  appeal  to  the  national  exigencies  merely, 
but  that  their  leaders  are  forced  by  public  opinion  to 
keep  up  the  sham  of  constitutionalism.  No  one  in 
America  seems  to  dream  that  there  can  be  anything 
to  alter  in  the  "  matchless  Constitution,"  which  was 
framed  by  a  body  of  slaveowners  filled  with  the  nar- 
rowest aristocratic  prejudices,  for  a  country  which  has 
since  abolished  slavery,  and  become  as  democratic  as 
any  nation  in  the  world. 

The  system  of  presidential  election  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Senate  are  matters  to  which  the  Republi- 
cans will  turn  their  attetition  as  soon  as  the  country  is 
rested  from  the  war.  It  is  not  impossible  that  a  life- 
time may  see  the  abolition  of  the  Presidency  proposed, 
and  carried  by  the  vote  of  the  whole  nation.  If  this 
be  not  done,  the  election  will  come  to  be  made  directly 
by  the  people,  without  the  intervention  of  the  electoral 
college.  The  Senate,  as  now  constituted,  rests  upon 
the  States,  and  that  State  rights  are  doomed  no  one 
can  doubt  who  remembers  that  of  the  population  of 
New  York  State  less  than  half  are  native-born  New 


244  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Yorkers.  "What  concern  can  the  cosmopolitan  moiety 
of  her  people  have  with  the  State  rights  of  New  York? 
When  a  system  becomes  purely  artificial,  it  is  on  the 
road  to  death;  when  State  rights  represented  the  various 
sovereign  powers  which  the  old  States  had  allowed  to 
sleep  while  they  entered  a  federal  union,  State  rights 
were  historical;  but  now  that  Congress  by  a  single 
vote  cuts  and  carves  territories  as  large  as  all  the  old 
States  put  together,  and  founds  new  commonwealths 
in  the  wilderness,  the  doctrine  is  worn  out. 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  Republicans  will  carry  all 
before  them  without  a  check;  but  though  one  Con- 
servative reaction  may  follow  another,  although  time 
after  time  the  Democrats  may  return  victorious  from 
the  fall  elections,  in  the  end  Radicalism  must  inevit- 
ably win  the  day.  A  party  which  takes  for  its  watch- 
word, "The  national  good,"  will  always  beat  the  Con- 
stitutionalists. 

Except  during  some  great  crisis,  the  questions  which 
come  most  home  at  election  times  in  a  democratic 
country  are  minor  points,  in  which  the  party  not  in 
power  has  always  the  advantage  over  the  office-holders: 
it  is  on  these  petty  matters  that  a  cry  of  jobbery  and 
corruption  can  be  got  up,  and  nothing  in  American 
politics  is  more  taking  than  such  a  cry.  "  We  are  a 
liberal  people,  sir,"  said  a  Californian  to  me,  "but 
among  ourselves  we  don't  care  to  see  some  men  get 
more  than  their  share  of  Uncle  Sam's  money.  It 
doesn't  go  down  at  election  time  to  say  that  the  Demo- 
crats are  spoiling  the  country;  but  it's  a  mighty  strong 
plank  that  you've  got  if  you  prove  that  Hank  Andrews 
has  made  a  million  of  dollars  by  the  last  Congressional 
job.  We  say,  *  Smart  boy,  Hank  Andrews;'  but  we 
generally  vote  for  the  other  man."  It  is  these  small 
questions,  or  "  side  issues,"  as  they  are  termed,  which 


REPUBLICAN  OR  DEMOCRAT.  245 

cause  the  position  of  parties  to  fluctuate  frequently  in 
certain  States. 

The  first  reaction  against  the  now  triumphant  Radi- 
cals will  probably  be  based  upon  the  indignation  ex- 
cited by  the  extension  of  Maine  liquor  laws  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  States  in  which  the  New  Englanders 
have  the  mastery.  Prohibitive  laws  are  not  supported 
in  America  by  the  arguments  with  which  all  of  us  in 
Britain  are  familiar.  The  New  England  Radicals  con- 
cede that,  so  far  as  the  effects  of  the  use  of  alcohol  are 
strictly  personal,  there  is  no  ground  for  the  interfer- 
ence of  society.  They  go  even  further,  and  say  that 
no  ground  for  general  and  indiscriminate  interference 
with  the  sale  of  liquor  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
drink  maddens  certain  men,  and  causes  them  to  com- 
mit crime.  They  are  willing  to  admit  that,  were  the 
evils  confined  to  individuals,  it  would  be  their  own 
affair;  but  they  attempt  to  show  that  the  use  of  alco- 
hol affects  the  condition,  moral  and  physical,  of  the 
drinker's  offspring,  and  that  this  is  a  matter  so  bound 
up  with  the  general  weal  that  public  interference  may 
be  necessary.  It  is  the  belief  of  a  majority  of  the 
thinkers  of  New  England  that  the  taint  of  alcoholic 
poison  is  hereditary;  that  the  children  of  drunkards 
will  furnish  more  than  the  ordinary  proportion  of  great 
criminals ;  that  the  descendants  of  habitual  tipplers 
will  be  found  to  lack  vital  force,  and  will  fall  into  the 
ranks  of  pauperism  and  dependence:  not  only  are  the 
results  of  morbid  appetites,  they  say,  transmitted  to 
the  children,  but  the  appetites  themselves  descend  to 
the  offspring  with  the  blood.  If  this  be  true,  the  New 
England  Radicals  urge,  the  use  of  alcohol  becomes  a 
moral  wrong,  a  crime  even,  of  which  the  law  might 
well  take  cognizance. 

We  are  often  told  that  party  organization  has  be- 
21* 


246  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

come  so  dictatorial,  so  despotic,  in  America,  that  no 
one  not  chosen  by  the  preliminary  convention,  no  one, 
in  short,  whose  name  is  not  upon  the  party  ticket,  has 
any  chance  of  election  to  an  office.  To  those  who 
reflect  upon  the  matter,  it  would  seem  as  though  this 
is  but  a  consequence  of  the  existence  of  party  and  of 
the  system  of  local  representation :  in  England  itself 
the  like  abuse  is  not  unknown.  Where  neither  party 
possesses  overwhelming  strength,  division  is  failure; 
and  some  knot  or  other  of  pushing  men  must  be  per- 
mitted to  make  the  selection  of  a  candidate,  to  which, 
when  made,  the  party  must  adhere,  or  suffer  a  defeat. 
As  to  the  composition  of  the  nominating  conventions, 
the  grossest  misstatements  have  been  made  to  us  in 
England,  for  we  have  been  gravely  a_ssured  that  a  na- 
tion which  is  admitted  to  present  the  greatest  mass  of 
education  and  intelligence  with  the  smallest  intermix- 
ture of  ignorance  and  vice  of  which  the  world  has 
knowledge,  allows  itself  to  be  dictated  to  in  the  matter 
of  the  choice  of  its  rulers  by  caucuses  and  conventions 
composed  of  the  idlest  and  most  worthless  of  its  popu- 
lation. Bribery,  we  have  been  told,  reigns  supreme 
in  these  assemblies;  the  nation's  interest  is  but  a 
phrase;  individual  sefishness  the  true  dictator  of  each 
choice;  the  name  of  party  is  but  a  cloak  for  private 
ends,  and  the  wire-pullers  are  equaled  in  rascality 
only  by  their  nominees. 

It  need  hardly  be  shown  that,  were  these  stories 
true,  a  people  so  full  of  patriotic  sentiment  as  that 
which  lately  furnished  a  million  and  a  half  of  volun- 
teers for  a  national  war,  would  without  doubt  be  led 
to  see  its  safety  in  the  destruction  of  conventions  and 
their  wire-pullers — of  party  government  itself,  if  neces- 
sary. It  cannot  be  conceived  that  the  American  people 
would  allow  its  institutions  to  be  stultified  and  law 


REPUBLICAN  OR   DEMOCRAT.  247 

itself  insulted  to  secure  the  temporary  triumph  of  this 
party  or  of  that,  on  any  mere  question  of  the  day. 

The  secret  of  the  power  of  caucus  and  convention 
is,  general  want  of  time  on  the  part  of  the  community. 
Your  honest  and  shrewd  Western  farmer,  not  having 
himself  the  leisure  to  select  his  candidate,  is  fain  to 
let  caucus  or  convention  choose  for  him.  In  practice, 
however,  the  evil  is  far  from  great :  the  party  caucus, 
for  its  own  interest,  will,  on  the  whole,  select  the  fittest 
candidate  available,  and,  in  any  case,  dares  not,  except 
perhaps  in  New  York  City,  fix  its  choice  upon  a  man 
of  known  bad  character.  Even  where  party  is  most 
despotic,  a  serious  mistake  committed  by  one  of  the 
nominating  conventions  will  seldom  fail  to  lose  its  side 
so  many  votes  as  to  secure  a  triumph  for  the  opponents. 

King  Caucus  is  a  great  monarch,  however;  it  would 
be  a  mistake  to  despise  him,  and  conventions  are  dear 
to  the  American  people — at  least  it  would  seem  so,  to 
judge  from  their  number.  Since  I  have  been  in  Amer- 
ica there  have  been  sitting,  besides  doubtless  a  hundred 
others,  the  names  of  which  I  have  not  noticed,  the 
Philadelphia  "  Copper  Johnson  Wigwam,"  or  assembly 
of  the  Presidential  party  (of  which  the  Radicals  say 
that  it  is  but  "the  Copperhead  organization  with  a 
fresh  snout"),  a  dentists'  convention,  a  phrenological 
convention,  a  pomological  congress,  a  school-teachers' 
convention,  a  Fenian  convention,  an  eight-hour  con- 
vention, an  insurance  companies'  convention,  and  a 
loyal  soldiers'  convention.  One  is  tempted  to  think 
of  the  assemblies  of  '48  in  Paris,  and  of  the  caricatures 
representing  the  young  bloods  of  the  Paris  Jockey 
Club  being  addressed  by  their  President  as  "Citoyens 
Vicomtes,"  whereas,  when  the  cafe  waiters  met  in  their 
congress,  it  was  u  Messieurs  les  Gar^ons-limonadiers." 

The  pomological  convention  was  an  extremely  jovial 


248  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

one,  all  the  horticulturists  being  whisky-growers  them- 
selves, and  having  a  proper  wish  to  compare  their 
own  with  their  neighbors'  "Bourbon"  or  "old  Rye." 
Caucuses  (or  cauci :  which  is  it  ?)  of  this  kind  suggest 
a  derivation  of  this  name  for  what  many  consider  a  low 
American  proceeding,  from  an  equally  low  Latin  word 
of  similar  sound  and  spelling.  In  spite  of  the  phrase 
"  a  dry  caucus"  being  not  unknown  in  the  temper- 
ance State  of  Maine,  many  might  be  inclined  to  think 
that  caucuses,  if  not  exactly  vessels  of  grace,  were  de- 
cidedly "drinking  vessels;"  but  Americans  tell  you 
that  the  word  is  derived  from  the  phrase  a  "  caulker's 
meeting,"  caulkers  being  peculiarly  given  to  noise. 

The  cry  against  conventions  is  only  a  branch  of  that 
against  "politicians,"  which  is  continually  being  raised 
by  the  adherents  of  the  side  which  happens  at  the  mo- 
ment to  be  the  weaker,  and  which  evidently  helps  to 
create  the  evils  against  which  its  authors  are  protest- 
ing. It  is  now  the  New  York  Democrats  who  tell  such 
stories  as  that  of  the  Columbia  District  census-taker 
going  to  the  Washington  house  of  a  wealthy  Boston 
man  to  find  out  his  religious  tenets.  The  door  was 
opened  by  a  black  boy,  to  whom  the  white  man  began : 
"What's  your  name?"  "Sambo,  sah,  am  rny  Chris- 
tian name.'"  "  Wall,  Sambo,  is  your  master  a  Chris- 
tian ?"  To  which  Sambo's  indignant  answer  was: 
"No,  sah!  Mass  member  ob  Congress,  sah !"  When 
the  Democrats  were  in  power,  it  was  the  Republicans 
of  Boston  and  the  Cambridge  professors  who  threw  out 
sly  hints,  and  violent  invectives  too,  against  the  whole 
tribe  of  "politicians."  Such  unreasoning  outcries  are 
to  be  met  only  by  bare  facts ;  but  were  a  jury  of  read- 
ers of  the  debates  in  Parliament  and  in  Congress  to 
be  impaneled  to  decide  whether  political  immorality 
were  not  more  rife  in  England  than  in  America,  I 


BROTHERS.  249 

should,  for  my  part,  look  forward  with  anxiety  to  the 
result.  m 

The  organization  of  the  Republican  party  is  hugely 
powerful ;  it  has  its  branches  in  every  township  and 
district  in  the  Union  ;  but  it  is  strong,  not  in  the  wiles 
of  crafty  plotters,  not  in  the  devices  of  unknown 
politicians,  but  in  the  hearts  of  the  loyal  people  of 
the  country.  If  there  were  nothing  else  to  be  said 
to  Englishmen  on  the  state  of  parties  in  America,  it 
should  be  sufficient  to  point  out  that,  while  the  "  De- 
mocracy" claim  the  Mozart  faction  of  New  York  and 
the  shoddy  aristocracy,  the  pious  New  Englanders  and 
their  sons  in  the  Northwest  are,  by  a  vast  majority, 
Republicans ;  and  no  "  side  issues"  should  be  allowed 
to  disguise  the  fact  that  the  Democratic  is  the  party  of 
New  York,  the  Republican  the  party  of  America. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

BROTHERS. 

I  HAD  landed  in  America  at  the  moment  of  what  is 
known  in  Canada  as  "  the  great  scare" — that  is,  the 
Fenian  invasion  at  Fort  Erie.  Before  going  South,  I 
had  attended  at  New  York  a  Fenian  meeting  held  to 
protest  against  the  conduct  of  the  President  and  Mr. 
Seward,  who,  it  was  asserted,  after  deluding  the  Irish 
with  promises  of  aid,  had  abandoned  them,  and  even 
seized  their  supplies  and  arms.  The  chief  speaker  of 
the  evening  was  Mr.  Gibbons,  of  Philadelphia,  "  Vice- 
President  of  the  Irish  Republic,"  a  grave  and  vener- 


250  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

able  man ;  no  rogue  or  schemer,  but  an  enthusiast  as 
evidently^  convinced  of  the  justice  as  of  the  certainty  of 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  cause. 

At  Chicago,  I  went  to  the  monster  meeting  at  which 
Speaker  Colfax  addressed  the  Brotherhood ;  at  Buffalo, 
I  was  present  at  the  "  armed  picnic"  which  gave  the 
Canadian  government  so  much  trouble.  On  Lake 
Michigan,  I  went  on  board  a  Fenian  ship ;  in  New 
York,  I  had  a  conversation  with  an  ex-rebel  officer,  a 
long-haired  Georgian,  who  was  wearing  the  Fenian 
uniform  of  green-and-gold  in  the  public  streets.  The 
conclusion  to  which  I  came  was,  that  the  Brotherhood 
has  the  support  of  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  Irish 
in  the  States.  As  we  are  dealing  not  with  British,  but 
with  English  politics  and  life,  this  is  rather  a  fact  to  be 
borne  in  mind  than  a  text  upon  which  to  found  a 
homily;  still,  the  nature  of  the  Irish  antipathy  to 
Britain  is  worth  a  moment's  consideration;  and  the 
probable  effect  of  it  upon  the  future  of  the  race  is  a 
matter  of  the  gravest  import. 

The  Fenians,  according  to  a  Chicago  member  of  the 
Roberts'  wing,  seek  to  return  to  the  ancient  state  of 
Ireland,  of  which  we  find  the  history  in  the  Brehon 
laws — a  communistic  tenure  of  land  (resembling,  no 
doubt,  that  of  the  Don  Cossacks),  and  a  republic  or 
elective  kingship.  Such  are  their  objects;  nothing 
else  will  in  the  least  conciliate  the  Irish  in  America. 
No  abolition  of  the  Establishment,  no  reform  of  land- 
laws,  no  Parliament  on  College  Green,  nothing  that 
England  can  grant  while  preserving  the  shadow  of 
union,  can  dissolve  the  Fenian  league. 

All  this  is  true,  and  yet  there  is  another  great  Irish 
nation  to  which,  if  you  turn,  you  find  that  conciliation 
may  still  avail  us.  The  Irish  in  Ireland  are  not  Fenians 
in  the  American  sense :  they  hate  us,  perhaps,  but  they 


BROTHERS.  251 

may  be  mollified ;  they  are  discontented,  but  they  may 
be  satisfied;  customs  and  principles  of  law,  the  natural 
growth  of  the  Irish  mind  and  the  Irish  soil,  can  be 
recognized,  and  made  the  basis  of  legislation,  without 
bringing  about  the  disruption  of  the  empire. 

The  first  Irish  question  that  we  shall  have  to  set  our- 
selves to  understand  is  that  of  land.  Permanent  tenure 
is  as  natural  to  the  Irish  as  freeholding  to  the  English 
people.  All  that  is  needed  of  our  statesmen  is,  that 
they  recognize  in  legislation  that  which  they  cannot 
but  admit  in  private  talk — namely,  that  there  may  be 
essential  differences  between  race  and  race. 

The  results  of  legislation  which  proceeds  upon  this 
basis  may  follow  very  slowly  upon  the  change  of  sys- 
tem, for  there  is  at  present  no  nucleus  whatever  for  the 
feeling  of  amity  which  we  would  create.  Even  the 
alliance  of  the  Irish  politicians  with  the  English  Radi- 
cals is  merely  temporary;  the  Irish  antipathy  to  the 
English  does  not  distinguish  between  Conservative 
and  Radical.  Years  of  good  government  will  be  needed 
to  create  an  alliance  against  which  centuries  of  oppres- 
sion and  wrong-doing  protest.  We  may  forget,  but 
the  Irish  will  hardly  find  themselves  able  to  forget  at 
present  that,  while  we  make  New  Zealand  savages 
British  citizens  as  well  as  subjects,  protect  them  in  the 
possession  of  their  lands,  and  encourage  them  to  vote 
at  our  polling-booths,  and  take  their  place  as  constables 
and  officers  of  the  law,  our  fathers  "planted"  Ireland, 
and  declared  it  no  felony  to  kill  an  Irishman  on  his 
mother-soil. 

In  spite  of  their  possession  of  much  political  power, 
and  of  the  entire  city  government  of  several  great 
towns,  the  Irish  in  America  are  neither  physically  nor 
morally  well  off.  Whatever  may  be  the  case  at  some 
future  day,  they  still  find  themselves  politically  in 


252  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

English  hands.  The  very  language  that  they  are  com- 
pelled to  speak  is  hateful,  even  to  men  who  know  no 
other.  With  an  impotent  spite  which  would  be  amus- 
ing were  it  not  very  sad,  a  resolution  was  carried  by 
acclamation  through  both  houses  of  the  Fenian  con- 
gress, at  Philadelphia,  this  year,  "that  the  word  'Eng- 
lish' be  unanimously  dropped,  and  that  the  words 
1  American  language'  be  used  in  the  future." 

From  the  Cabinet,  from  Congress,  from  every  office, 
high  or  low,  not  controlled  by  the  Fenian  vote,  the 
Irish  are  systematically  excluded ;  but  it  cannot  be 
American  public  opinion  which  has  prevented  the 
Catholic  Irish  from  rising  as  merchants  and  traders, 
even  in  New  York.  Yet,  while  there  are  Belfast  names 
high  up  on  the  Atlantic  side  and  in  San  Francisco, 
there  are  none  from  Cork,  none  from  the  southern 
counties.  It  would  seem  as  though  the  true  Irishman 
wants  the  perseverance  to  become  a  successful  mer- 
chant, and  thrives  best  at  pure  brain-work,  or  upon 
land.  Three-fourths  of  the  Irish  in  America  remain 
in  towns,  losing  the  attachment  to  the  soil  which  is  the 
strongest  characteristic  of  the  Irish  in  Ireland,  and 
finding  no  new  home :  disgusted  at  their  exclusion  in 
America  from  political  life  and  power,  it  is  these  men 
who  turn  to  Fenianism  as  a  relief.  Through  drink, 
through  gambling,  and  the  other  vices  of  homeless, 
thriftless  men,  they  are  soon  reduced  to  beggary;  and, 
moral  as  they  are  by  nature,  the  Irish  are  nevertheless 
supplying  America  with  that  which  she  never  before 
possessed — a  criminal  and  pauper  class.  Of  ten  thou- 
sand people  sent  to  jail  each  year  in  Massachusetts,  six 
thousand  are  Irish  born ;  in  Chicago,  out  of  the  3598 
convicts  of  last  year,  only  eighty-four  were  native  born 
Americans. 

To  the  Americans,  Fenianism   has   many  aspects. 


HllOTHERti.  253 

The  greater  number  hate  the  Irish,  but  sympathize 
.profoundly  with  Ireland.  Many  are  so  desirous  of 
seeing  republicanism  prevail  throughout  the  world 
that  they  support  the  Irish  republic  in  any  way,  ex- 
cept, indeed,  by  taking  its  paper  money,  and  look  upon 
its  establishment  as  a  first  step  toward  the  erection  of 
a  free  government  that  shall  include  England  and  Scot- 
land as  well.  Some  think  the  Fenians  will  burn  the 
Capitol  and  rob  the  banks;  some  regard  them  with 
satisfaction,  or  the  reverse,  from  the  religious  point  of 
view.  One  of  the  latter  kind  of  lookers-on  said  to  me: 
"I  was  glad  to  see  the  Fenian  movement,  not  that  I 
wish  success  to  the  Brotherhood  as  against  you  Eng- 
lish, but  because  I  rejoice  to  see  among  Irishmen  a 
powerful  center  of  resistance  to  the  Catholic  Church. 
We,  in  this  country,  were  being  delivered  over,  bound 
hand  and  foot,  to  the  Roman  Church,  and  these  Fenians, 
by  their  power  and  their  violence  against  the  priests, 
have  divided  the  Irish  camp  and  rescued  us."  The 
unfortunate  Canadians,  for  their  part,  ask  why  they 
should  be  shot  and  robbed  because  Britain  maltreats 
the  Irish ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Fenian  raid 
on  Canada  was  an  exact  repetition,  almost  on  the  same 
ground,  of  the  St.  Alban's  raid  into  the  American  ter- 
ritory during  the  rebellion. 

The  Fenians  would  be  as  absolutely  without  strength 
in  America  as  they  are  without  credit  were  it  not  for 
the  anti-British  traditions  of  the  Democratic  party,  and 
the  rankling  of  the  Alabama  question,  or  rather  of  the 
remembrance  of  our  general  conduct  during  the  rebel- 
lion, in  the  hearts  of  the  Republicans.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  spend  much  time  in  New  England  without  be- 
coming aware  that  the  people  of  the  six  Northeastern 
States  love  us  from  the  heart.  Nothing  but  this  can 
explain  the  character  of  their  feeling  toward  us  on 

22 


254  GEE  ATE  E   BEITAIN. 

these  Alabama  claims.  That  we  should  refuse  an  ar- 
bitration upon  the  whole  question  is  to  them  inexpli- 
cable, and  they  grieve  with  wondering  sorrow  at  our 
perversity. 

It  is  not  here  that  the  legal  question  need  be  raised; 
for  observers  of  the  present  position  of  the  English 
race  it  is  enough  that  there  exists  between  Britain  and 
America  a  bar  to  perfect  friendship — a  ground  for  fu- 
ture quarrel — upon  which  we  refuse  to  allow  an  all- 
embracing  arbitration.  We  allege  that  we  are  the 
best  judges  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  case,  that  our 
dignity  would  be  compromised  by  arbitration  upon 
these  points ;  but  such  dignity  must  always  be  com- 
promised by  arbitration,  for  common  friends  are  called 
in  only  when  each  party  to  the  dispute  has  a  case,  in 
the  justice  of  which  his  dignity  is  bound  up.  Arbitra- 
tion is  resorted  to  as  a  means  of  avoiding  wars  ;  and, 
dignity  or  no  dignity,  everything  that  can  cause  war  is 
proper  matter  for  arbitration.  What  even  if  some 
little  dignity  be  lost  by  the  affair,  in  addition  to  that 
which  has  been  lost  already?  No  such  loss  can  be  set 
against  the  frightful  hurtfulness  to  the  race  and  to  the 
cause  of  freedom,  of  war  between  Britain  and  America. 

The  question  comes  plainly  enough  to  this  point;  we 
say  we  are  right ;  America  says  we  are  wrong ;  they 
offer  arbitration,  which  we  refuse  upon  a  point  of  eti- 
quette— for  on  that  ground  we  decline  to  refer  to  arbi- 
tration a  point  which  to  America  appears  essential.  It 
looks  to  the  world  as  though  we  offer  to  submit  to  the 
umpire  chosen  those  points  only  on  which  we  are  al- 
ready prepared  to  admit  that  we  are  in  the  wrong. 
America  asks  us  to  submit,  as  we  should  do  in  private 
life,  the  whole  correspondence  on  which  the  quarrel 
stands.  Even  if  we,  better  instructed  in  the  precedents 
of  international  law  than  were  the  Americans,  could 


BROTHERS.  255 

not  but  be  in  the  right,  still,  as  we  know  that  intelligent 
and  able  men  in  the  United  States  think  otherwise,  and 
would  fancy  their  cause  the  just  one  in  a  war  which 
might  arise  upon  the  difficulty,  surely  there  is  ground 
for  arbitration.  It  would  be  to  the  eternal  disgrace  of 
civilization  that  we  should  set  to  work  to  cut  our 
brothers'  throats  upon  a  point  of  etiquette ;  and,  by 
declining  on  the  ground  of  honor  to  discuss  these 
claims,  we  are  compromising  that  honor  in  the  eyes  of 
all  the  world. 

In  democracies  such  as  America  or  France,  every 
citizen  feels  an  insult  to  his  country  as  an  insult  to 
himself.  The  Alabama  question  is  in  the  mouth  or 
in  the  heart  —  which  is  worse  —  of  every  American 
who  talks  with  an  Englishman  in  England  or  America. 

All  nations  commit,  at  times,  the  error  of  acting  as 
though  they  think  that  every  people  on  earth,  except 
themselves,  are  unanimous  in  their  policy.  Neglecting 
the  race  distinctions  and  the  class  distinctions  which 
in  England  are  added  to  the  universal  essential  differ- 
ences of  minds,  the  Americans  are  convinced  that, 
during  the  late  war,  we  thought  as  one  man,  and  that, 
in  this  present  matter  of  the  Alabama  claims,  we  stand 
out  and  act  as  a  united  people. 

A  New  Yorker  with  whom  I  stayed  at  Quebec — a 
shrewd  but  kindly  fellow — was  an  odd  instance  of  the 
American  incapacity  to  understand  the  British  nation, 
which  almost  equals  our  own  inability  to  comprehend 
America.  Kind  and  hospitable  to  me,  as  is  any  Amer- 
ican to  every  Englishman  in  all  times  and  places,  he 
detested  British  policy,  and  obstinately  refused  to  see 
that  there  is  an  England  larger  than  Downing  Street, 
a  nation  outside  Pall  Mall.  "  England  was  with  the 
rebels  throughout  the  war."  "Excuse  me;  our  ruling 
classes  were  so,  perhaps,  but  our  rulers  don't  represent 


256  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

us  any  more  than  your  39th  Congress  represents  George 
Washington."  In  America,  where  Congress  does  fairly 
represent  the  nation,  and  where  there  has  never  been 
less  than  a  quarter  of  the  body  favorable  to  any  policy 
which  half  the  nation  supported,  men  cannot  under- 
stand that  there  should  exist  a  country  which  thinks 
one  way,  but,  through  her  rulers,  speaks  another.  We 
may  disown  the  national  policy,  but  we  suffer  for  it. 

The  hospitality  to  Englishmen  of  the  American 
England-hater  is  extraordinary.  An  old  Southerner 
in  Richmond  said  to  me  in  a  breath,  "I'd  go  and  live 
in  England  if  I  didn't  hate  it  as  I  do.  England,  sir, 
betrayed  us  in  the  most  scoundrelly  way — talked  of 
sympathy  with  the  South,  and  stood  by  to  see  us  swal- 
lowed up.  I  hate  England,  sir !  Come  and  stay  a  week 

with  me  at  my  place  in  County.  Going  South 

to-day?  Well,  then,  you  return  this  way  next  week. 
Come  then  !  Come  on  Saturday  week." 

When  we  ask,  "Why  do  you  press  the  Alabama 
claims  against  us,  and  not  the  Florida,  the  Georgia, 
and  the  Rappahannock  claims  against  the  French?" 
the  answer  is:  "Because  we  don't  care  about  the 
French,  and  what  they  do  and  think ;  besides,  we  owe 
them  some  courtesy  after  bundling  them  out  of  Mexico 
in  the  way  we  did."  In  truth  there  is  among  Amer- 
icans an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  offensive  powers 
of  Great  Britain ;  and  such  is  the  jealousy  of  young 
nations  that  this  exaggeration  becomes  of  itself  a  cause 
of  danger.  Were  the  Americans  as  fully  convinced, 
as  we  ourselves  are,  of  our  total  incapacity  to  carry 
on  a  land  war  with  the  United  States  on  the  western 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  bolder  spirits  among  them 
would  cease  to  feel  themselves  under  an  assumed 
necessity  to  show  us  our  own  weakness  and  their 
strength. 


BROTHERS  257 

The  chief  reason  why  America  finds  much  to  offend 
her  in  our  conduct  is,  that  she  cares  for  the  opinion  of 
no  other  people  than  the  English.  America,  before 
the  terrible  blow  to  her  confidence  and  love  that  our 
conduct  during  the  rebellion  gave,  used  morally  to 
lean  on  England.  Happily  for  herself  she  is  now 
emancipated  from  the  mental  thraldom ;  but  she  still 
yearns  toward  our  kindly  friendship.  A  Napoleonic 
Senator  harangues,  a  French  paper  declaims,  against 
America  and  Americans;  who  cares?  But  a  Times' 
leader,  or  a  speech  in  Parliament  from  a  minister  of 
the  Crown,  cuts  to  the  heart,  wounding  terribly.  A  na- 
tion, like  an  individual,  never  quarrels  with  a  stranger; 
there  must  be  love  at  bottom  for  even  querulousness 
to  arise.  While  I  was  in  Boston,  one  of  the  foremost 
writers  of  America  said  to  me  in  conversation:  "I 
have  no  son,  but  I  had  a  nephew  of  my  own  name ;  a 
grand  fellow;  young,  handsome,  winning  in  his  ways, 
full  of  family  affections,  an  ardent  student.  He  felt  it 
his  duty  to  go  to  the  front  as  a  private  in  one  of  our 
regiments  of  Massachusetts  volunteers,  and  was  pro- 
moted for  bravery  to  a  captaincy.  All  of  us  here 
looked  on  him  as  a  New  England  Philip  Sidney,  the 
type  of  all  that  was  manly,  chivalrous,  and  noble.  The 
very  day  that  I  received  news  of  his  being  kille'd  in 
leading  his  company  against  a  regiment,  I  was  forced 
by  my  duties  here  to  read  a  leader  in  one  of  your  chief 
papers  upon  the  officering  of  our  army,  in  which  it  was 
more  than  hinted  that  our  troops  consisted  of  German 
cut-throats  and  pot-house  Irish,  led  by  sharpers  and 
broken  politicians.  Can  you  wonder  at  my  being 
bitter?" 

That  there  must  be  in  America  a  profound  feeling 
of  affection  for  our  country  is  shown  by  the  avoidance 
of  war  when  we  recognized  the  rebels  as  belligerents  ; 

22* 


258  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

and,  again,  at  the  time  of  the  Trent  affair,  when  the 
surface  cry  was  overwhelmingly  for  battle,  and  the 
cabinet  only  able  to  tide  it  over  by  promising  the  West 
war  with  England  as  soon  as  the  rebellion  was  put- 
down.  "  One  war  at  a  time,  gentlemen,"  said  Lincoln. 
The  man  who,  of  all  in  America,  had  most  to  lose  by 
war  with  England,  said  to  me  of  the  Trent  affair:  "I 

was  written  to  by  C to  do  all  I  could  for  peace.     I 

wrote  him  back  that  if  our  attorney-general  decided 
that  our  seizure  of  the  men  was  lawful,  I  would  spend 
my  last  dollar  in  the  cause." 

The  Americans,  everywhere  affectionate  toward  the 
individual  Englishman,  make  no  secret  of  their  feeling 
that  the  first  advances  toward  a  renewal  of  the  national 
friendship  ought  to  come  from  us.  They  might  remind 
us  that  our  Maori  subjects  have  a  proverb,  "  Let  friends 
settle  their  disputes  as  friends." 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

AMERICA. 

are  coasting  again,  gliding  through  calm  blue 
waters,  watching  the  dolphins  as  they  play,  and  the 
boobies  as  they  fly  stroke  and  stroke  with  the  paddles 
of  the  ship.  Mountains  rise  through  the  warm  misty 
air,  and  form  a  long  towering  line  upon  the  upper 
skies.  Hanging  high  above  us  are  the  Volcano  of  Fire 
and  that  of  Water — twin  menacers  of  Guatamala  City. 
In  the  sixteenth  century,  the  water-mountain  drowned 
it;  in  the  eighteenth,  it  was  burnt  by  the  fire-hill. 


AMERICA.  259 

Since  then,  the  city  has  been  shaken  to  pieces  by  earth- 
quakes, and  of  sixty  thousand  men  and  women,  hardly 
one  escaped.  Down  the  valley,  between  the  peaks,  we 
have  through  the  mahogany  groves  an  exquisite  distant 
view  toward  the  city.  Once  more  passing  on,  we  get 
peeps,  now  of  West  Honduras,  and  now  of  the  island 
coffee  plantations  of  Costa  Rica.  The  heat  is  terrible. 
It  was  just  here,  if  we  are  to  believe  Drake,  that  he 
fell  in  with  a  shower  so  hot  and  scalding,  that  each 
drop  burnt  its  hole  through  his  men's  clothes  as  they 
hung  up  to  dry.  "  Steep  stories,"  it  is  clear,  were  known 
before  the  plantation  of  America. 

Now  that  the  <time  has  come  for  a  leave-taking  of  the 
continent,  we  can  begin  to  reflect  upon  facts  gleaned 
during  visits  to  twenty-nine  of  the  forty-five  Territories 
and  States — twenty-nine  empires  the  size  of  Spain. 

A  man  may  see  American  countries,  from  the  pine- 
wastes  of  Maine  to  the  slopes  of  the  Sierra;  may  talk 
with  American  mBn  and  women,  from  the  sober  citizens 
of  Boston  to  Digger  Indians  in  California;  may  eat  of 
American  dishes,  from  jerked  buffalo  in  Colorado  to 
clambakes  on  the  shores  near  Salem ;  and  yet,  from  the 
time  he  first  "  smells  the  molasses"  at  Nantucket  light- 
ship to  the  moment  when  the  pilot  quits  him  at  the 
Golden  Gate,  may  have  no  idea  of  an  American.  You 
may  have  seen  the  East,  the  South,  the  West,  the 
Pacific  States,  and  yet  have  failed  to  find  America.  It 
is  not  till  you  have  left  her  shores  that  her  image  grows 
up  in  the  mind. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  the  Englishman  just 
landed  in  New  York  is  the  apparent  Latinization  of 
the  English  in  America ;  but  before  he  leaves  the 
country,  he  comes  to  see  that  this  is  at  most  a  local 
fact,  and  that  the  true  moral  of  America  is  the  vigor 
of  the  English  race — the  defeat  of  the  cheaper  by  the 


260  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

dearer  peoples,  the  victory  of  the  man  whose  food  costs 
four  shillings  a  day  over  the  man  whose  food  costs  four 
pence.  Excluding  the  Atlantic  cities,  the  English  in 
America  are  absorbing  the  Germans  and  the  Celts,  de- 
stroying the  Red  Indians,  and  checking  the  advance  of 
the  Chinese. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  is  the  only  extirpating  race  on 
earth.  Up  to  the  commencement  of  the  now  inevitable 
destruction  of  the  Red  Indians  of  Central  North 
America,  of  the  Maories,  and  of  the  Australians  by  the 
English  colonists,  no  numerous  race  had  ever  been 
blotted  out  by  an  invader.  The  Danes  and  Saxons 
amalgamated  with  the  Britons,  the  Normans  with  the 
English,  the  Tartars  with  the  Chinese,  the  Goths  and 
Burgundians  with  the  Gauls :  the  Spaniards  not  only 
never  annihilated  a  people,  but  have  themselves  been 
all  but  completely  expelled  by  the  Indians,  in  Mexico 
and  South  America.  The  Portuguese  in  Ceylon,  the 
Dutch  in  Java,  the  French  in  Canada  and  Algeria, 
have  conquered  but  not  killed  off  the  native  peoples. 
Hitherto  it  has  been  nature's  rule,  that  the  race  that 
peopled  a  country  in  the  earliest  historic  days  should 
people  it  to  the  end  of  time.  The  American  problem 
is*this:  does  the  law,  in  a  modified  shape,  hold  good, 
in  spite  of  the  destruction  of  the  imtive  population  ? 
Is  it  true  that  the  negroes,  now  that  they  are  free,  are 
commencing  slowly  to  die  out?  that  the  New  Eng- 
landers  are  dying  fast,  and  their  places  being  supplied 
by  immigrants  ?  Can  the  English  in  America,  in  the 
long  run,  survive  the  common  fate  of  all  migrating 
races  ?  Is  it  true  that,  if  the  American  settlers  con- 
tinue to  exist,  it  will  be  at  the  price  of  being  no  longer 
English,  but  Red  Indian  ?  It  is  certain  that  the  Eng- 
lish families  long  in  the  land  have  the  features  of  the 
extirpated  race ;  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  negroes 


AMERICA.  261 

there  is  at  present  no  trace  of  any  change,  save  in  their 
becoming  dark  brown  instead  of  black. 

The  Maories — an  immigrant  race — were  dying  off 
in  NQW  Zealand  when  we  landed  there.  The  Indians 
of  Mexico — another  immigrant  people — had  themselves 
undergone  decline,  numerical  and  moral,  when  we  first 
became  acquainted  with  them.  Are  we  English  in 
turn  to  degenerate  abroad,  under  pressure  of  a  great 
natural  law  forbidding  change  ?  It  is  easy  to  say  that 
the  English  in  Old  England  are  not  a  native  but  an  im- 
migrant race ;  that  they  show  no  symptoms  of  decline. 
There,  however,  the  change  was  slight,  the  distance 
short,  the  difference  of  climate  small. 

The  rapidity  of  the  disappearance  of  physical  type 
is  equaled  at  least,  if  not  exceeded,  by  that  of  the  total 
alteration  of  the  moral  characteristics  of  the  immigrant 
races — the  entire  destruction  of  eccentricity,  in  short. 
The  change  that  comes  over  those  among  the  Irish  who 
do  not  remain  in  the  great  towns  is  not  greater  than 
that  w7hich  overtakes  the  English  handworkers,  of 
whom  some  thousands  reach  America  each  year. 
Gradually  settling  down  on  land,  and  finding  them- 
selves lost  in  a  sea  of  intelligence,  and  freed  from  the 
inspiring  obstacles  of  antiquated  institutions  and  class 
prejudice,  the  English  handicraftsman,  ceasing  to  be 
roused  to  aggressive  Radicalism  by  the  opposition  of 
sinister  interests,  merges  into  the  contented  homestead 
settler,  or  adventurous  backwoodsman.  Greater  even 
than  this  revolution  of  character  is  that  which  falls 
upon  the  Celt.  Not  only  is  it  a  fact  known  alike  to 
physiologists  and  statisticians,  that  the  children  of  Irish 
parents  born  in  America  are,  physically,  not  Irish, 
Americans,  but  the  like  is  true  of  the  moral  type :  the 
change  in  this  is  at  least  as  sweeping.  The  son  of 
Fenian  Pat  and  bright-eyed  Biddy  is  the  normal  gaunt 


262  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

American,  quick  of  thought,  but  slow  of  speech,  whom 
we  have  begun  to  recognize  as  the  latest  product  of  the 
Saxon  race,  when  housed  upon  the  Western  prairies, 
or  in  the  pine-woods  of  New  England. 

For  the  moral  change  in  the  British  workman  it  is 
not  difficult  to  account :  the  man  who  will  leave  coun- 
try, home,  and  friends,  to  seek  new  fortunes  in  Amer- 
ica, is  essentially  not  an  ordinary  man.  As  a  rule,  he 
is  above  the  average  in  intelligence,  or,  if  defective  in 
this  point,  he  makes  up  for  lack  of  wit  by  the  posses- 
sion of  concentrativeness  and  energy.  Such  a  man 
will  have  pushed  himself  to  the  front  in  his  club,  his 
union,  or  his  shop,  before  he  emigrates.  In  England 
he  is  somebody;  in  America  he  finds  all  hands  con- 
tented; or,  if  not  this,  at  all  events  too  busy  to  com- 
plain of  such  ills  as  they  profess  to  labor  under.  Among 
contented  men,  his  equals  both  in  intelligence  arid 
ambition,  in  a  country  of  perfect  freedom  of  speech, 
of  manners,  of  laws,  and  of  society,  the  occupation  of 
his  mind  is  gone,  and  he  comes  to  think  himself  what 
others  seem  to  think — a  nobody;  a  man  who  no  longer 
is  a  living  force.  He  settles  upon  land;  and  when  the 
world  knows  him  no  more,  his  children  are  happy 
corn-growers  in  his  stead. 

The  shape  of  North  America  makes  the  existence 
of  distinct  peoples  within  her  limits  almost  impossible. 
An  upturned  bowl,  with  a  mountain  rim,  from  which 
the  streams  run  inward  toward  the  center,  she  must 
fuse  together  all  the  races  that  settle  within  her  borders, 
and  the  fusion  must  now  be  in  an  English  mould. 

There  are  homogeneous  foreign  populations  in  sev- 
eral portions  of  the  United  States;  not  only  the  Irish 
and  Chinese,  at  whose  prospects  we  have  already 
glanced,  but  also  Germans  in  Pennsylvania,  Spanish 
in  Florida,  French  in  Louisiana  and  at  Sault  de  Ste 


AMERICA.  263 

Marie.  In  Wisconsin  there  is  a  Norwegian  popula- 
tion of  over  a  hundred  thousand,  retaining  their  own 
language  and  their  own  architecture,  and  presenting 
the  appearance  of  a  tough  morsel  for  the  English  to 
digest;  at  the  same  time,  the  Swedes  were  the  first 
settlers  of  Delaware  and  New  Jersey,  and  there  they 
have  disappeared. 

Milwaukee  is  a  Norwegian  town.  The  houses  are 
narrow  and  high,  the  windows  many,  with  circular 
tops  ornamented  in  wood  or  dark-brown  stone,  and  a 
heavy  wooden  cornice  crowns  the  front.  The  churches 
have  the  wooden  bulb  and  spire  which  are  character- 
istic of  the  Scandinavian  public  buildings.  The  Nor- 
wegians will  not  mix  with  other  races,  and  invariably 
flock  to  spots  where  there  is  already  a  large  population 
speaking  their  own  tongue.  Those  who  enter  Canada 
generally  become  dissatisfied  with  the  country,  and 
pass  on  into  Wisconsin,  or  Minnesota,  but  the  Canadian 
government  has  now  under  its  consideration  a  plan 
for  founding  a  Norwegian  colony  on  Lake  Huron. 
The  numbers  of  this  people  are  not  so  great  as  to  make 
it  important  to  inquire  whether  they  will  ever  merge 
into  the  general  population.  Analogy  would  lead  us 
to  expect  that  they  will  be  absorbed;  their  existence  is 
not  historical,  like  that  of  the  French  in  Lower  Canada. 

From  Burlington,  in  Iowa,  I  had  visited  a  spot  the 
history  of  which  is  typical  of  the  development  of  Amer- 
ica— Nauvoo.  Founded  in  1840  by  Joe  Smith,  the 
Mormon  city  stood  upon  a  bluff  overhanging  the  Des 
Moines  rapids  of  the  Mississippi,  presenting  on  the 
land  side  the  aspect  of  a  gentle,  graceful  slope,  sur- 
mounted by  a  plain.  After  the  fanatical  pioneers  of 
English  civilization  had  been  driven  from  the  city,  and 
their  temple  burnt,  there  came  Cabet's  Icarian  band, 
who  tried  to  found  a  new  France  in  the  desert;  but  in 


264  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

1856  the  leader  died,  and  his  people  dispersed  them- 
selves about  the  States  of  Iowa  and  Missouri.  Next 
came  the  English  settlers,  active,  thriving,  regardless 
of  tradition,  and  Nauvoo  is  entering  on  a  new  life  as 
the  capital  of  a  wine-growing  country.  I  found  Cabet 
and  the  Mormons  alike  forgotten.  The  ruins  of  the 
temple  have  disappeared,  and  the  huge  stones  have 
been  used  up  in  cellars,  built  to  contain  the  Hock — a 
pleasant  wine,  like  Zeltinger. 

The  bearing  upon  religion  of  the  gradual  destruc- 
tion of  race  is  of  great  moment  to  the  world.  Chris- 
tianity will  gain  by  the  change;  but  which  of  its  many 
branches  will  receive  support  is  a  question  which  only 
admits  of  an  imperfect  answer.  Arguing  a  priori,  we 
should  expect  to  find  that,  on  the  one  hand,  a  tendency 
toward  unity  would  manifest  itself,  taking  the  shape, 
perhaps,  of  a  gain  of  strength  by  the  Catholic  and 
Anglican  Churches;  on  the  other  hand,  there  would 
be  a  contrary  and  still  stronger  tendency  toward  an 
infinite  multiplication  of  beliefs,  till  millions  of  men 
and  women  would  become  each  of  them  his  own 
church.  Coming  to  the  actual  cases  in  which  we  can 
trace  the  tendencies  that  commence  to  manifest  them- 
selves, we  find  that  in  America  the  Anglican  Church 
is  gaining  ground,  especially  on  the  Pacific  side,  and 
that  the  Catholics  do  not  seem  to  meet  with  any  such 
success  as  we  should  have  looked  for;  retaining,  in- 
deed, their  hold  over  the  Irish  women  and  a  portion 
of  the  men,  and  having  their  historic  French  branches 
in  Louisiana  and  in  Canada,  but  not,  unless  it  be  in 
the  Cities  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  making 
much  way  among  the  English.  % 

Between  San  Francisco  and  Chicago,  for  religious 
purposes  the  most  cosmopolitan  of  cities,  we  have  to 
draw  distinctions.  In  the  Pacific  city  the  disturbing 


AMERICA.  265 

cause  is  the  presence  of  New  Yorkers ;  in  the  metrop- 
olis of  the  Northwestern  States  it  is  the  dominance  of 
New  England  ideas :  still,  we  shall  find  no  two  cities 
so  free  from  local  color,  and  from  the  influence  of  race. 
The  result  of  an  examination  is  not  encouraging :  in 
both  cities  there  is  much  external  show  in  the  shape 
of  church  attendance;  in  neither  does  religion  strike 
its  roots  deeply  into  the  hearts  of  the  citizens,  except 
so  far  as  it  is  alien  and  imported. 

The  Spiritualist  and  Unitarian  churches  are  both  of 
them  in  Chicago  extremely  strong:  they  support  news- 
papers and  periodicals  of  their  own,  and  are  led  by  men 
and  women  of  remarkable  ability,  but  they  are  not  the 
less  Cambridge  Unitarianism,  Boston  Spiritualism; 
there  is  nothing  of  the  Northwest  about  them.  In  San 
Francisco,  on  the  other  hand,  Anglicanism  is  prosper- 
ing, but  it  is  New  York  Episcopalianism,  sustained  by 
immigrants  and  money  from  the  East ;  in  no  sense  is 
it  a  Californian  church. 

Throughout  America  the  multiplication  of  churches 
is  rapid,  but  among  the  native-born  Americans,  Super- 
naturalism  is  advancing  with  great  strides.  The  Shakers 
are  strong  in  thought,  the  Spiritualists  in  wealth  and 
numbers ;  Communism  gains  ground,  but  not  Polyg- 
amy— the  Mormon  is  a  purely  European  church. 

There  is  just  now  progressing  in  America  a  great 
movement,  headed  by  the  "  Radical  Unitarians," 
toward  "free  religion,"  or  church  without  creed. 
The  leaders  deny  that  there  is  sufficient  security  for 
the  spread  of  religion  in  each  man's  individual  action: 
they  desire  collective  work  by  all  free-thinkers  and 
liberal  religionists  in  the  direction  of  truth  and  purity 
of  life.  Christianity  is  higher  than  dogma,  we  are 
told ;  there  is  no  way  out  of  infinite  multiplication  ot 
creeds  but  by  their  total  extirpation.  Oneness  of  pur- 

23 


266  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

pose  and  a  common  love  for  truth  form  the  members' 
only  tie.  Elder  Frederick  Evans  said  to  me :  "  All 
truth  forms  part  of  Shakerism;"  but  these  free  relig- 
ionists assure  us  that  in  all  truth  consists  their  sole  re- 
ligion. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  these  American  philo- 
sophical and  religious  systems  is  their  gigantic  width : 
for  instance,  every  human  being  who  admits  that  dis- 
embodied spirits  may  in  any  way  hold  intercourse  with 
dwellers  upon  earth,  whatever  else  he  may  believe  or 
disbelieve,  is  claimed  by  the  Spiritualists  as  a  member 
of  their  church.  They  tell  us  that  by  "  Spiritualism  they 
understand  whatever  bears  relation  to  spirit;"  their 
system  embraces  all  existence,  brute,  human,  and 
divine;  in  fact,  "the  real  man  is  a  spirit."  Accord- 
ing to  these  ardent  proselytizers,  every  poet,  every  man 
with  a  grain  of  imagination  in  his  nature,  is  a  "  Spirit- 
ualist." They  claim  Plato,  Socrates,  Milton,  Shak- 
speare,  Washington  Irving,  Charles  Dickens,  Luther, 
Joseph  Addison,  Melancthon,  Paul,  Stephen,  the  whole 
of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  Homer,  and  John  Wesley, 
among  the  members  of  their  Church.  They  have 
lately  canonized  new  saints  :  St.  Confucius,  St.  Theo- 
dore (Parker),  St.  Ealph  (Waldo  Emerson),  St.  Emma 
(Hardinge),  all  figure  in  their  calendar.  It  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  that  the  saints  are  mostly  resident  in  New 
England. 

The  tracts  published  at  the  Spiritual  Clarion  office, 
Auburn,  New  York,  put  forward  Spiritualism  as  a  re- 
ligion which  is  to  stand  toward  existing  churches  as 
did  Christianity  toward  Judaism,  and  announce  a  new 
dispensation  to  the  peoples  of  the  earth  "  who  have 
sown  their  wild  oats  in  Christianity,"  but  they  spell 
supersede  with  a  "c." 

This  strange  religion  has  long  since  left  behind  the 


AMERICA.  267 

rappings  and  table-turnings  in  which  it  took  its  birth. 
The  secret  of  its  success  is  that  it  supplies  to  every  man 
the  satisfaction  of  the  universal  craving  for  the  super- 
natural, in  any  form  in  which  he  will  receive  it.  The 
Spiritualists  claim  two  millions  of  active  believers  and 
five  million  "favorers"  in  America. 

The  presence  of  a  large  German  population  is  thought 
by  some  to  have  an  important  bearing  on  the  religious 
future  of  America,  but  the  Germans  have  hitherto 
kept  themselves  apart  from  the  intellectual  progress  of 
the  nation.  They,  as  a  rule,  withdraw  from  towns, 
and,  retaining  their  language  and  supporting  local 
papers  of  their  own,  live  out  of  the  world  of  American 
literature  and  politics;  taking,  however,  at  rare  inter- 
vals, a  patriotic  part  in  national  affairs,  as  was  notably 
the  case  at  the  time  of  the  late  rebellion.  Living  thus 
by  themselves,  they  have  even  less  influence  upon 
American  religious  thought  than  have  the  Irish,  who, 
speaking  the  English  tongue,  and  dwelling  almost 
exclusively  in  towns,  are  brought  more  into  contact 
with  the  daily  life  of  the  republic.  The  Germans  in 
America  are  in  the  main  pure  materialists  under  a 
certain  show  of  deism,  but  hitherto  there  has  been  no 
alliance  between  them  and  the  powerful  Chicago  Badi- 
cal  Unitarians,  difference  of  language  having  thus  far 
proved  a  bar  to  the  formation  of  a  league  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  inevitable. 

On  the  whole,  it  would  seem  that  for  the  moment 
religious  prospects  are  not  bright;  the  tendency  is 
rather  toward  intense  and  unhealthily-developed  feel- 
ing in  the  few,  and  subscription  to  some  one  of  the 
Episcopalian  churches — Catholic,  Anglican,  or  Meth- 
odist— among  the  many,  coupled  with  real  indifference. 
Neither  the  tendency  to  unity  of  creeds  nor  that  toward 
infinite  multiplication  of  beliefs  has  yet  made  that 


268  OEEATEE   BRITAIN. 

progress  which  abstract  speculation  would  have  led  us 
to  expect,  but  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  few  facts 
before  us,  there  is  much  likelihood  that  multiplication 
will  in  the  future  prove  too  strong  for  unity. 

After  all  there  is  not  in  America  a  greater  wonder 
than  the  Englishman  himself,  for  it  is  to  this  continent 
that  you  must  come  to  find  him  in  full  possession  of 
his  powers.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people 
speak  or  are  ruled  by  those  who  speak  the  English 
tongue,  and  inhabit  a  third  of  the  habitable  globe; 
but,  at  the  present  rate  of  increase,  in  sixty  years  there 
will  be  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  Englishmen 
dwelling  in  the  United  States  alone.  America  has 
somewhat  grown  since  the  time  when  it  was  gravely 
proposed  to  call  her  Alleghania,  after  a  chain  of  mount- 
ains which,  looking  from  this  western  side,  may  be 
said  to  skirt  her  eastern  border,  and  the  loftiest  peaks 
of  which  are  but  half  the  height  of  the  very  passes  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains. 

America  is  becoming  not  English  merely,  but  world- 
embracing  in  the  variety  of  its  type ;  and,  as  the  Eng- 
lish element  has  given  language  and  history  to  that 
land,  America  offers  the  English  race  the  moral  direct- 
orship of  the  globe,  by  ruling  mankind  through  Saxon 
institutions  and  the  English  tongue.  Through  Amer- 
ica, England  is  speaking  to  the  world. 


II. 

POLYNESIA. 

23*  ( 269 ) 


CHAPTER   I. 

PITCAIRN   ISLAND. 

PANAMA  is  a  picturesque  time-worn  Spanish  city,  that 
rises  abruptly  from  the  sea  in  a  confused  pile  of  decay- 
ing bastions  and  decayed  cathedrals,  while  a  dense 
jungle  of  mangrove  and  bamboo  threatens  to  bury  it  in 
rich  greenery.  The  forest  is  filled  with  baboons  and 
lizards  of  gigantic  size,  and  is  gay  with  the  bright 
plumage  of  the  toucans  and  macaws,  while,  within  the 
walls,  every  housetop  bears  its  living  load  of  hideous 
turkey-buzzards,  foul-winged  and  bloodshot-eyed. 

It  was  the  rainy  season  (which  here,  indeed,  lasts  for 
three-quarters  of  the  year),  and  each  day  was  an  alter- 
nation of  shower-bath,  and  vapor-bath  with  sickly  sun. 
On  the  first  night  of  my  stay,  there  was  a  lunar  rain- 
bow, which  I  went  on  to  the  roof  of  the  hotel  to  watch. 
The  misty  sky  was  white  with  the  reflected  light  of  the 
hidden  moon,  which  was  obscured  by  an  inky  cloud, 
that  seemed  a  tunnel  through  the  heavens.  In  a  few 
minutes  I  was  driven  from  my  post  by  the  tropical 
rain. 

At  the  railway  station,  T parted  from  my  Californian 
friends,  who  were  bound  for  Aspinwall,  and  thence  by 
steamer  to  New  York.  A  stranger  scene  it  has  not 
often  been  my  fortune  to  behold.  There  cannot  have 
been  less  than  a  thousand  natives,  wearing  enormous 
hats  and  little  else,  and  selling  everything,  from  linen 
suits  to  the  last  French  novel.  A  tame  jaguar,  a  peli- 
can, parrots,  monkeys,  pearls,  shells,  flowers,  green 

(211) 


272  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

cocoa-nuts  and  turtles,  mangoes  and  wild  dogs,  were 
among  the  tilings  for  sale.  The  station  was  guarded 
by  the  army  of  the  Republic  of  New  Granada,  consist- 
ing of  five  officers,  a  bugler,  a  drummer,  and  nineteen 
privates.  Six  of  the  men  wore  red  trowsers  and  dirty 
shirts  for  uniform ;  the  rest  dressed  as  they  pleased, 
which  was  generally  in  Adamic  style.  Not  even  the 
officers  had  shoes;  and  of  the  twenty-one  men,  one  was 
a  full-blooded  Indian,  some  ten  were  negroes,  and  the 
remainder  nondescripts,  but  among  them  was  of  course 
an  Irishman  from  Cork  or  Kilkenny.  After  the  train 
had  started,  the  troops  formed,  and  marched  briskly 
through  the  town,  the  drummer  trotting  along  some 
twenty  yards  before  the  company,  French-fashion,  and 
beating  the  retraite.  The  French  invalids  from  Aca- 
pulco,  who  were  awaiting  in  Panama  the  arrival  of  an 
Imperial  frigate  at  Aspinwall,  stood  in  the  streets  to 
see  the  New  Granadans  pass,  twirling  their  moustaches, 
and  smiling  grimly.  One  old  drum-major,  lean  and 
worn  with  fever,  turned  to  me,  and,  shrugging  his 
shoulders,  pointed  to  his  side  :  the  Granadans  had  their 
bayonets  tied  on  with  string. 

Whether  Panama  will  continue  to  hold  its  present 
position  as  the  "gate  of  the  Pacific"  is  somewhat 
doubtful :  Nicaragua  offers  greater  advantages  to  the 
English,  Tehuantepec  to  the  American  traders.  The 
Gulf  of  Panama  and  the  ocean  for  a  great  distance  to 
the  westward  from  its  mouth  are  notorious  for  their 
freedom  from  all  breezes ;  the  gulf  lies,  indeed,  in  the 
equatorial  belt  of  calms,  and  sailing-vessels  can  never 
make  much  use  of  the  port  of  Panama.  Aspinwall  or 
Colon,  on  the  Atlantic  side,  has  no  true  port  whatever. 
As  long,  however,  as  the  question  is  merely  one  of  rail- 
road and  steamship  traffic,  Panama  may  hold  its  own 
against  the  other  isthmus  cities ;  but  when  the  canal  is 


PIT  CAIRN  ISLAND.  273 

cut,  the  selected  spot  must  be  one  that  shall  be  beyond 
the  reach  of  calms — in  Nicaragua  or  Mexico. 

From  Panama  I  sailed  in  one  of  the  ships  of  the 
new  Colonial  Line,  for  Wellington,  in  New  Zealand — 
the  longest  steam-voyage  in  the  world.  Our  course 
was  to  be  a  "  great  circle"  to  Pitcairn  Island,  and 
another  great  circle  thence  to  Cape  Palliser,  near  Wel- 
lington— a  distance  in  all  of  some  6600  miles ;  but  our 
actual  course  was  nearer  7000.  When  off  the  Gala- 
pagos Islands,  we  met  the  cold  southerly  wind  and 
water,  known  as  the  Chilian  current,  and  crossed  the 
equator  in  a  breeze  which  forced  us  all  to  wear  great- 
coats, and  to  dream  that,  instead  of  entering  the 
southern  hemisphere,  we  had  come  by  mistake  within 
the  arctic  circle. 

After  traversing  lonely  and  hitherto  unknown  seas 
and  looking  in  vain  for  a  new  guano  island,  on  the 
sixteenth  day  we  worked  out  the  ship's  position  at 
noon  with  more  than  usual  care,  if  that  were  possible, 
and  found  that  in  four  hours  we  ought  to  be  at  Pit- 
cairn  Island.  At  half-past  two  o'clock,  land  was 
sighted  right  ahead ;  and  by  four  o'clock,  we  were  in 
the  bay,  such  as  it  is,  at  Pitcairn. 

Although  at  sea  there  was  a  calm,  the  surf  from  the 
ground-swell  beat  heavily  upon  the  shore,  and  we 
were  faint  to  content  ourselves  with  the  view  of  the 
island  from  our  decks.  It  consists  of  a  single  volcanic 
peak,  hung  with  an  arras  of  green  creeping  plants, 
passion-flowers,  and  trumpet-vines.  As  for  the  people, 
they  came  off  to  us  dancing  over  the  seas  in  their 
canoes,  and  bringing  us  green  oranges  and  bananas, 
while  a  huge  Union  Jack  was  run  up  on  their  flagstaff 
by  those  who  remained  on  shore. 

As  the  first  man  came  on  deck,  he  rushed  to  the 
captain,  and,  shaking  hands  violently,  cried,  in  pure 


274  GEE  ATE  E   B  El  TAIN. 

English,  entirely  free  from  accent,  "  How  do  you  do, 
captain?  How's  Victoria ?"  There  was  no  disrespect 
in  the  omission  of  the  title  "  Queen ;"  the  question 
seemed  to  come  from  the  heart.  The  bright-eyed  lads, 
Adams  and  Young,  descendants  of  the  Bounty  muti- 
neers, who  had  been  the  first  to  climb  our  sides,  an- 
nounced the  coming  of  Moses  Young,  the  "  magistrate" 
of  the  isle,  who  presently  boarded  us  in  state.  He  was 
a  grave  and  gentlemanly  man,  English  in  appearance, 
but  somewhat  slightly  built,  as  were,  indeed,  the  lads. 
The  magistrate  came  off  to  lay  before  the  captain  the 
facts  relating  to  a  feud  which  exists  between  two  par- 
ties of  the  islanders,  and  upon  which  they  require  arbi- 
tration. He  had  been  under  the  impression  that  we 
were  a  man-of-war,  as  we  had  fired  two  guns  on  enter- 
ing the  bay,  and  being  received  by  our  officers,  who 
wore  the  cap  of  the  Naval  Reserve,  he  continued  in 
the  belief  till  the  captain  explained  what  the  "  Rakaia" 
was,  and  why  she  had  called  at  Pitcairn. 

The  case  which  the  captain  was  to  have  heard  judi- 
cially was  laid  before  us  for  our  advice  while  the  flues 
of  the  ship  were  being  cleaned.  When  the  British 
government  removed  the  Pitcairn  Islanders  to  Norfolk 
Island,  no  return  to  the  old  home  was  contemplated, 
but  the  indolent  half-castes  found  the  task  of  keeping 
the  Norfolk  Island  convict  roads  in  good  repair  one 
heavier  than  they  cared  to  perform,  and  fifty-two  of 
them  have  lately  come  back  to  Pitcairn.  A  widow 
who  returned  with  the  others  claims  a  third  of  the 
whole  island  as  having  been  the  property  of  her  late 
husband,  and  is  supported  in  her  demand  by  half  the 
islanders,  while  Moses  Young  and  the  remainder  of 
the  people  admit  the  facts,  but  assert  that  the  desertion 
of  the  island  was  complete,  and  operated  as  an  entire 
abandonment  of  titles,  which  the  reoccupation  cannot 


PITGAIRN  ISLAND.  275 

revive.  The  success  of  the  woman's  claim,  they  say, 
would  be  the  destruction  of  the  prosperity  of  Pitcairn. 

The  case  would  be  an  extremely  curious  one  if  It 
had  to  be  decided  upon  legal  grounds,  for  it  would 
raise  complicated  questions  both  on  the  nature  of  Brit- 
ish citizenship  and  the  character  of  the  "occupation" 
title;  but  it  is  probable  that  the  islanders  will  abide 
by  the  decision  of  the  Governor  of  New  South  Wales, 
to  which  colony  they  consider  themselves  in  some 
degree  attached. 

When  we  had  drawn  up  a  case  to  be  submitted  to 
Sir  John  Young,  at  Sydney,  our  captain  made  a  com- 
mercial treaty  with  the  magistrate,  who  agreed  to  sup- 
ply the  ships  of  the  new  line,  whenever  daylight  allowed 
them  to  call  at  Pitcairn,  with  oranges,  bananas,  ducks, 
and  fowls,  for  which  he  was  to  receive  cloth  and  to- 
bacco in  exchange,  tobacco  being  the  money  of  the 
Polynesian  Archipelago.  Mr.  Young  told  us  that  his 
people  had  thirty  sheep,  which  were  owned  by  each  of 
the  families  in  turn,  the  household  taking  care  of  them, 
and  receiving  the  profits  for  one  year.  Water,  he  said, 
sometimes  falls  short  in  the  island,  but  they  then  make 
use  of  the  juice  of  the  green  cocoa-nut.  Their  school 
is  excellent;  all  the  children  can  read  and  write,  and 
in  the  election  of  magistrates  they  have  female  suffrage. 

When  we  went  on  deck  again  to  talk  to  the  younger 
men,  Adams  asked  us  a  new  question:  "Have  you  a 
Sunday  at  Home,  or  a  British  Workman?"  Our  books 
and  papers  having  been  ransacked,  Moses  Young  pre- 
pared to  leave  the  ship,  taking  with  him  presents  from 
the  stores.  Besides  the  cloth,  tobacco,  hats,  and  linen, 
there  was  a  bottle  of  brandy;  given  for  medicine,  as 
the  islanders  are  strict  teetotalers.  While  Young  held 
the  bottle  in  his  hand,  afraid  to  trust  the  lads  with  it, 
Adams  read  the  label  and  cried  out,  " Brandy?  How 


276  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

much  for  a  dose  ?  .  .  .  .  Oh,  yes!  all  right — I  know: 
it's  good  for  the  women!"  When  they  at  last  left  the 
ship's  side,  one  of  the  canoes  was  filled  with  a  crino- 
line and  blue  silk  dress  for  Mrs.  Young,  and  another 
with  a  red  and  brown  tartan  for  Mrs.  Adams,  both 
given  by  lady  passengers,  while  the  lads  went  ashore 
in  dust-coats  and  smoking-caps. 

Now  that  the  French,  with  their  singular  habit  of 
everywhere  annexing  countries  which  other  colonizing 
nations  have  rejected,  are  rapidly  occupying  all  the 
Polynesian  groups  except  the  only  ones  that  are  of 
value — namely,  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  New  Zealand 
— Pitcairn  becomes  of  some  interest  as  a  solitary  Brit- 
ish post  on  the  very  border  of  the  French  dominions, 
and  it  has  for  us  the  stronger  claim  to  notice  which  is 
raised  by  the  fact  that  it  has  figured  for  the  last  few 
years  on  the  wrong  side  of  our  British  budget. 

As  we  stood  out  from  the  bay  into  the  lonely  seas, 
the  island  peak  showed  a  black  outline  against  a  pale- 
green  sky,  but  in  the  west  the  heavy  clouds  that  in  the 
Pacific  never  fail  to  cumber  the  horizon  were  glowing 
with  a  crimson  cast  by  the  now-set  sun,  and  the  dancing 
wavelets  were  tinted  with  reflected  hues. 

The  "scarlet  shafts,"  which  poets  have  ascribed  to 
the  tropical  sunrise,  are  common  at  sunset  in  the  South 
Pacific.  Almost  every  night  the  declining  sun,  sink- 
ing behind  the  clouds,  throws  rays  across  the  sky — not 
yellow,  as  in  Europe  and  America,  but  red  or  rosy 
pink.  On  the  night  after  leaving  Pitcairn,  I  saw  a 
still  grander  effect  of  light  and  color.  The  sun  had 
set,  and  in  the  west  the  clear  greenish  sky  was  hidden 
by  pitch-black  thunder-clouds.  Through  these  were 
crimson  caves. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  our  voyage,  we  sighted 
the  frowning  cliffs  of  Palliser,  where  the  bold  bluff, 


PITCAIRN  ISLAND.  277 

coming  sheer  down  three  thousand  feet,  receives  the 
full  shock  of  the  South  Seas — a  fitting  introduction  to 
the  grand  scenery  of  New  Zealand;  and  within  a  few 
hours  we  were  running  up  the  great  sea-lake  of  Port 
Nicholson  toward  long  lines  of  steamers  at  a  wharf, 
behind  which  were  the  cottages  of  Wellington,  the 
capital. 

To  me,  coming  from  San  Francisco  and  the  Nevadan 
towns,  Wellington  appeared  very  English  and  ex- 
tremely quiet ;  the  town  is  sunny  and  still,  but  with  a 
holiday  look;  indeed,  I  could  not  help  fancying  that  it 
was  Sunday.  A  certain  haziness  as  to  what  was  the 
day  of  the  week  prevailed  among  the  passengers  and 
crew,  for  we  had  arrived  upon  our  Wednesday,  the 
New  Zealand  Thursday,  and  so,  without  losing  an 
hour,  lost  a  day,  which,  unless  by  going  round  the 
world  the  other  way,  can  never  be  regained.  The 
bright  colors  of  the  painted  wooden  houses,  the  clear 
air,  the  rose-beds,  and  the  emerald-green  grass,  are  the 
true  cause  of  the  holiday  look  of  the  New  Zealand 
towns,  and  Wellington  is  the  gayest  of  them  all;  for, 
owing  to  the  frequency  of  earthquakes,  the  townsfolk 
are  not  allowed  to  build  in  brick  or  stone.  The  natives 
say  that  once  in  every  month  "  Ruaimoko  turns  him- 
self," and  sad  things  follow  to  the  shaken  earth. 

It  was  now  November,  the  New  Zealand  spring,  and 
the  outskirts  of  Wellington  were  gay  with  the  cherry- 
trees,  in  full  fruiting  and  English  dog-roses  in  full 
bloom,  while  on  every  road-side  bank  the  gorse  blazed 
in  its  coat  of  yellow:  there  was,  too,  to  me,  a  singular 
charm  in  the  bright  green  turf,  after  the  tawny  grass 
of  California. 

Without  making  a  long  halt,  I  started  for  the  South 
Island,  first  steaming  across  Cook's  Straits,  and  up 
Queen  Charlotte  Sound  to  Picton,  and  then  through 

24 


278  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  French  Pass — a  narrow  passage  filled  with  fearful 
whirlpools — to  Nelson,  agemlike  little  Cornish  village. 
After  a  day's  "  cattle-branding"  with  an  old  college 
friend  at  his  farm  in  the  valley,  of  the  Maitai,  I  sailed 
again  for  the  south,  laying  for  a  night  in  Massacre 
Bay,  to  avoid  the  worst  of  a  tremendous  gale,  and  then 
coasting  down  to  The  Buller  and  Hokitika — the  new 
gold-fields  of  the  colonies. 


CHAPTEE    II. 

HOKITIKA. 

PLACED  in  the  very  track  of  storms,  and  open  to  the 
sweep  of  rolling  seas  from  every  quarter,  exposed  to 
waves  that  run  from  pole  to  pole,  or  from  South  Africa, 
to  Cape  Horn,  the  shores  of  New  Zealand  are  famed 
for  swell  and  surf,  and  her  western  rivers  for  the  danger 
of  their  bars.  Insurances  at  Melbourne  are  five  times 
as  high  for  the  voyage  to  Hokitika  as  for  the  longer 
cruise  to  Brisbane. 

In  our  little  steamer  of  a  hundred  tons,  built  to  cross 
the  bars,  we  had  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Hokitika 
River  soon  after  dark,  but  lay  all  night  some  ten  miles 
to  the  southwest  of  the  port.  As  we  steamed  in  the 
early  morning  from  our  anchorage,  there  rose  up  on 
the  east  the  finest  sunrise  view  on  which  it  has  been 
my  fortune  to  set  eyes. 

A  hundred  miles  of  the  Southern  Alps  stood  out 
upon  a  pale-blue  sky  in  curves  of  a  gloomy  white  that 
were  just  beginning  to  blush  with  pink,  but  ended  to 


NKVV     ZEALAND 


176 


178 


S     O     U     IT     H 

Christ  church 


vGr  170  172  174-  176  178 


London  &  Camhriage.Maanillaji  fe  C? 


7E1 


HOKITIKA.  279 

the  southward  in  a  cone  of  fire  that  stood  up  from  the 
ocean :  it  was  the  snow-dome  of  Mount  Cook  struck 
by  the  rising  sun.  The  evergreen  bush,  flaming  with 
the*  crimson  of  the  rata-blooms,  hung  upon  the  mount- 
ain-side, and  covered  the  plain  to  the  very  margin  of 
the  narrow  sands  with  a  dense  jungle.  It  was  one  of 
those  sights  that  haunt  men  for  years,  like  the  eyes  of 
Mary  in  Bellini's  Milan  picture. 

On  the  bar,  three  ranks  of  waves  appeared  to  stand 
fixed  in  walls  of  surf.  These  huge  rollers  are  sad  de- 
stroyers of  the  New  Zealand  coasting  ships :  a  steamer 
was  lost  here  a  week  before  my  visit,  and  the  harbor- 
master's whale-boat  dashed  in  pieces,  and  two  men 
drowned. 

Lashing  everything  that  was  on  deck,  and  battening 
down  the  hatches  in  case  we  should  ground  in  crossing, 
we  prepared  to  run-  the  gauntlet.  The  steamers  often 
ground  for  an  instant  while  in  the  trough  between  the 
waves,  and  the  second  sea,  pooping  them,  sweeps  them 
from  end  to  end,  but  carries  them  into  the  still  water. 
Watching  our  time,  we  were  borne  on  a  great  rolling 
white-capped  wave  into  the  quiet  lakelet  that  forms 
the  harbor,  just  as  the  sun,  coming  slowly  up  behind 
the  range,  was  firing  the  Alps  from  north  to  south; 
but  it  was  not  till  we  had  lain  some  minutes  at  the 
wharf  that  the  sun  rose  to  us  poor  mortals  of  the  sea 
and  plain.  Hokitika  Bay  is  strangely  like  the  lower 
portion  of  the  Lago  Maggiore,  but  Mount  Rosa  is  in- 
ferior to  Mount  Cook. 

As  I  walked  up  from  the  quay  to  the  town,  looking 
for  the  "Empire"  Hotel,  which  I  had  heard  was  the 
best  in  Hokitika,  I  spied  a  boy  carrying  a  bundle  of 
some  newspaper.  It  was  the  early  edition  for  the  up- 
country  coaches,  but  I  asked  if  he  could  spare  me  a 
copy.  He  put  one  into  my  hand.  "  How  much  ?"  I 


280  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

asked.  "A  snapper."  "A  snapper?""  Ay — a  tizzy." 
Understanding  this  more  familiar  term,  I  gave  him  a 
shilling.  Instead  of  "  change,"  he  cocked  up  his  knee, 
slapt  the  shilling  down  on  it,  and  said  "Cry!"  I* ac- 
cordingly cried  "Woman !"  and  won,  he  loyally  re- 
turning the  coin,  and  walking  off  minus  a  paper. 

"When  I  reached  that  particular  gin-palace  which 
was  known  as  the  hotel,  I  found  that  all  the  rooms 
were  occupied,  but  that  I  could,  if  I  pleased,  lie  down 
on  a  deal  side-table  in  the  billiard-room.  In  our  voy- 
age down  the  coast  from  Nelson,  we  had  brought  for 
The  Buller  and  for  Hokitika  a  cabin  full  of  cut  flowers 
for  bouquets,  of  which  the  diggers  are  extremely  fond. 
The  fact  was  pretty  enough :  the  store  set  upon  a  sin- 
gle rose—"  an  English  rosebud" — culled  from  a  plant 
that  had  been  brought  from  the  Old  Country  in  a  clip- 
per ship,  was  still  more  touching,  but  the  flowers  made 
sleep  below  impossible,  and  it  had  been  blowing  too 
hard  for  me  to  sleep  on  deck,  so  that  I  was  glad  to  lie 
down  upon  my  table  for  an  hour's  rest.  The  boards 
were  rough  and  full  of  cracks,  and  I  began  to  dream 
that,  walking  on  the  landing-stage,  I  ran  against  a 
man,  who  drew  his  revolver  upon  me.  In  wrenching 
it  from  him,  I  hurt  my  hand  in  the  lock,  and  woke  to 
find  my  fingers  pinched  in  one  of  the  chinks  of  the 
long  table.  Despairing  of  further  sleep,  I  started  to 
walk  through  Hokitika,  and  to  explore  the  "clearings" 
which  the  settlers  are  making  in  the  bush. 

At  Pakihi  and  The  Buller,  I  had  already  seen  the 
places  to  which  the  latest  gold-digging  "rush"  had 
taken  place,  with  the  result  of  planting  there  some 
thousands  of  men  with  nothing  to  eat  but  gold — for 
diggers,  however  shrewd,  fall  an  easy  prey  to  those 
who  tell  them  of  spots  where  gold  may  be  had  for  the 
digging,  and  never  stop  to  think  how  they  shall  live. 


HOKITIKA.  281 

No  attempt  is  at  present  made  to  grow  even  vegetables 
for  the  diggers'  food:  every  one  is  engrossed  in  the 
search  for  gold.  It  is  true  that  the  dense  jungle  is 
being  driven  back  from  the  diggers'  camps  by  fire  and 
sword,  but  the  clearing  is  only  made  to  give  room  for 
tents  and  houses.  At  The  Buller,  I  had  found  the 
forest,  which  comes  down  at  present  to  the  water's 
edge,  and  crowds  upon  the  twenty  shanties  and  hun- 
dred tents  and  boweries  which  form  the  town,  smoking 
with  fires  on  every  side,  and  the  parrots  chattering 
with  fright.  The  fires  obstinately  refused  to  spread, 
but  the  tall  feathery  trees  were  falling  fast  under  the 
axes  of  some  hundred  diggers,  who  seemed  not  to  have 
much  romantic  sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  the  tree- 
ferns  they  had  uprooted,  or  of  the  passion-flowers  they 
were  tearing  from  the  evergreens  they  had  embraced. 

The  soil  about  The  Fox,  The  Buller,  The  Okitiki, 
and  the  other  west-coast  rivers  on  which  gold  is  found, 
is  a  black  leaf-mould  of  extraordinary  depth  and  rich- 
ness ;  but  in  New  Zealand,  as  in  America,  the  poor 
lands  are  first  occupied  by  the  settlers,  because  the  fat 
soils  will  pay  for  the  clearing  only  when  there  is  already 
a  considerable  population  on  the  land.  On  this  west 
coast  it  rains  nearly  all  the  year,  and  vegetation  has 
such  power,  that  "  rainy  Hokitika"  must  long  continue 
to  be  fed  from  Christchurch  and  from  Nelson,  for  it 
is  as  hard  to  keep  the  land  clear  as  it  is  at  the  first  to 
clear  it. 

The  profits  realized  upon  ventures  from  Nelson  to 
the  Gold  Coast  are  enormous ;  nothing  less  than  fifty 
per  cent,  will  compensate  the  owners  for  losses  011  the 
bars.  The  first  cattle  imported  from  Nelson  to  The 
Buller  fetched  at  the  latter  place  double  the  price  they 
had  cost  only  two  days  earlier.  One  result  of  this 
maritime  usury  that  was  told  me  by  the  steward  of  the 

24* 


282  GEE  ATE  E   BEITAIN. 

steamer  in  which  I  came  down  from  Nelson  is  worth  re- 
cording for  the  benefit  of  the  Economists.  They  had 
on  board,  he  said,  a  stock  of  spirits,  sufficient  for  several 
trips,  but  they  altered  their  prices  according  to  local- 
ity ;  from  Nelson  to  The  Buller,  they  charged  6d.  a 
drink,  but,  once  in  the  river,  the  price  rose  to  Is.,  at 
which  it  remained  until  the  ship  left  port  upon  her  re- 
turn to  Nelson,  when  it  fell  again  to  6d.  A  drover 
coming  down  in  charge  of  cattle  was  a  great  friend  of 
this  steward,  and  the  latter  confirmed  the  story  which 
he  had  told  me  by  waking  the  drover  when  we  were 
oft*  The  Buller  bar :  "  Say,  mister,  if  you  want  a  drink, 
you'd  better  take  it.  It'll  be  shilling  drinks  in  five 
minutes." 

The  Hokitikians  flatter  themselves  that  their  city  is 
the  "most  rising  place"  on  earth,  and  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  if  population  alone  is  to  be  regarded,  the 
rapidity  of  its  growth  has  been  amazing.  At  the  time 
of  my  visit,  one  year  and  a  half  had  passed  since  the 
settlement  was  formed  by  a  few  diggers,  and  it  already 
had  a  permanent  population  of  ten  thousand,  while  no 
less  than  sixty  thousand  diggers  and  their  friends 
claimed  it  for  their  headquarters.  San  Francisco 
itself  did  not  rise  so  fast,  Melbourne  not  much  faster ; 
but  Hokitika,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  not  only  a 
gold  field  port,  but  itself  upon  the  gold  field.  It  is 
San  Francisco  and  Placerville  in  one — Ballarat  and 
Melbourne. 

Inferior  in  its  banks  and  theaters  to  Virginia  City, 
or  even  Austin,  there  is  one  point  in  which  Hokitika 
surpasses  every  American  mining  town  that  I  have 
seen — the  goodness,  namely,  of  its  roads.  Working 
upon  them  in  the  bright  morning  sun  which  this  day 
graced  "rainy  Hokitika"  with  its  presence,  were  a 
gang  of  diggers  and  sailors,  dressed  in  the  clothes 


HOKITIKA.  283 

which  every  one  must  wear  in  a  digging  town,  unless 
he  wishes  to  be  stared  at  by  passers-by.  Even  sailors 
on  shore  "  for  a  run  "  here  wear  cord  breeches  and  high 
tight-fitting  boots,  often  armed  with  spurs,  though,  as 
there  are  no  horses  except  those  of  the  Gold  Coast 
Police,  they  cannot  enjoy  much  riding.  The  gang 
working  on  the  roads  were  like  the  people  I  met  about 
the  town — rough,  but  not  ill-looking  fellows.  To  my 
Astonishment  I  saw,  conspicuous  among  their  red  shirts 
and  ''jumpers,"  the  blue  and  white  uniform  of  the 
mounted  police;  and  from  the  way  in  which  the  con- 
stables handled  their  loaded  rifles,  I  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  road-menders  must  be  a  gang  of  pris- 
oners. On  inquiry,  I  found  that  all  the  New  Zealand 
"convicts,"  including  under  this  sweeping  title  men 
convicted  for  mere  petty  offenses,  and  sentenced  to 
hard  labor  for  a  month,  are  made  to  do  good  practical 
work  upon  the  roads:  so  much  resistance  to  the  police, 
so  much  new  road  made  or  old  road  mended.  I  was 
reminded  of  the  Missourian  practice  of  setting  pris- 
oners to  dig  out  the  stumps  that  cumber  the  streets  of 
the  younger  towns :  the  sentence  on  a  man  for  being 
drunk  is  -said  to  be  that  he  pull  up  a  black  walnut 
stump;  drunk  and  disorderly,  a  large  buck-eye;  as- 
saulting the  sheriff,  a  tough  old  hickory  root,  and  so  on. 

The  hair  and  beard  of  the  short-sentence  "convicts" 
in  New  Zealand  is  never  cut,  and  there  is  nothing 
hang-dog  in  their  looks;  but  their  faces  are  often 
bright,  and  even  happy.  These  cheerful  prisoners  are 
for  the  most  part  "  runners  " — sailors  who  have  broken 
their  agreements  in  order  to  get  upon  the  diggings, 
and  who  bear  their  punishment  philosophically,  with 
the  hope  of  future  "finds"  before  them. 

When  the  great  rush  to  Melbourne  occurred  in  1848, 
ships  by  the  hundred  were  left  in  the  Yarra  without  a 


284  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

single  hand  to  navigate  them.  Nuggets  in  the  hand 
would  not  tempt  sailors  away  from  the  hunt  after  the 
nuggets  in  the  bush.  Ships  left  Hobson's  Bay  for 
Chili  with  half  a  dozen  hands ;  and  in  one  case  that 
came  within  my  knowledge,  a  captain,  his  mate,  and 
three  Maories  took  a  brig  across  the  Pacific  to  San 
Francisco. 

As  the  morning  wore  on,  I  came  near  seeing  some- 
thing of  more  serious  crime  than  that  for  which  these 
"runners"  were  convicted.  " Sticking-up,"  as  high- 
way robbery  is  called  in  the  colonies,  has  always  been 
common  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  but  of  late 
the  bush-rangers,  deserting  their  old  tactics,  have  com- 
menced to  murder  as  well  as  rob.  In  three  months  of 
1866,  no  less  than  fifty  or  sixty  murders  took  place  in 
the  South  Island  of  New  Zealand,  all  of  them  com- 
mitted, it  was  believed,  by  a  gang  known  as  "The 
Thugs."  Mr.  George  Dobson,  the  government  sur- 
veyor, was  murdered  near  Hokitika  in  May,  but  it  was 
not  till  November  that  the  gang  wras  broken  up  by  the 
police  and  volunteers.  Levy,  Kelly,  and  Burgess, 
three  of  the  most  notorious  of  the  villains,  were  on 
their  trial  at  Hokitika  while  I  was  there,  and  Sullivan, 
also  a  member  of  the  band,  who  had  been  taken  at 
Nelson,  had  volunteered  to  give  evidence  against  them. 
Sullivan  was  to  come  by  steamer  from  the  North,  with- 
out touching  at  The  Buller  or  The  Grey;  and  when 
the  ship  was  signaled,  the  excitement  of  the  popula- 
tion became  considerable,  the  diggers  asserting  that 
Sullivan  was  not  only  the  basest,  but  the  most  guilty 
of  all  the  gang.  As  the  vessel  ran  across  the  bar  and 
into  the  bay,  the  police  were  marched  down  to  the 
landing-place,  and  a  yelling  crowd  surrounded  them, 
threatening  to  lynch  the  informer.  When  the  steamer 
came  alongside  the  wharf,  Sullivan  was  not  to  be  seen, 


HOKITIKA.  285 

and  it  was  soon  discovered  that  he  had  been  landed  in 
a  whale-boat  upon  the  outer  beach.  Off  rushed  the 
crowd  to  intercept  the  party  in  the  town ;  but  they 
found  the  jail  gates  already  shut  and  barred. 

It  was  hard  to  say  whether  it  was  for  Thuggism  or 
for  turning  Queen's  evidence  that  Sullivan  was  to  be 
lynched :  crime  is  looked  at  here  as  leniently  as  it  is 
in  Texas.  I  once  met  a  man  who  had  been  a  coroner 
at  one  of  the  digging  towns,  who,  talking  of  "old 
times,"  said,  quietly  enough:  "Oh,  yes,  plenty  of 
work ;  we  used  to  make  a  good  deal  of  it.  You  see  I 
was  paid  by  fees,  so  I  used  generally  to  manage  to 
hold  four  or  five  inquests  on  each  body.  Awful  rogues 
my  assistants  were :  I  shouldn't  like  to  have  some  of 
those  men's  sins  to  answer  for." 

The  Gold  Coast  Police  Force,  which  has  been  formed 
to  put  a  stop  to  Thuggism.  and  bush-ranging,  is  a  splendid 
body  of  cavalry,  about  which  many  good  stories  are 
told.  One  digger  said  to  me  :  "  Seen  our  policemen  ? 
We  don't  have  no  younger  sons  of  British  peers  among 
'em."  Another  account  says  that  none  but  members 
of  the  older  English  universities  are  admitted  to  the 
force. 

There  are  here,  upon  the  diggings,  many  military 
men  and  university  graduates,  who  generally  retain 
their  polish  of  manner,  though  outwardly  they  are 
often  the  roughest  of  the  rough.  Some  of  them  tell 
strange  stories.  One  Cambridge  man,  who  was  acting 
as  a  post-office  clerk  (not  at  Hokitika),  told  me  that  in 
1862,  shortly  after  taking  his  degree,  he  went  out  to 
British  Columbia  to  settle  upon  land.  He  soon  spent 
his  capital  at  billiards  in  Victoria  City,  and  went  as  a 
digger  to  the  Frazer  River.  There  he  made  a  "pile," 
which  he  gambled  away  on  his  road  back,  and  he 
struggled  through  the  winter  of  1863-4  by  shooting 


286  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

and  selling  game.  In  1864  he  was  attached  as  a  hunter 
to  the  Vancouver's  Exploring  Expedition,  and  in  1865 
started  with  a  small  sum  of  money  for  Australia.  He 
was  wrecked,  lost  all  he  had,  and  was  forced  to  work 
his  passage  down  to  Melbourne.  From  there  he  went 
into  South  Australia  as  the  driver  of  a  reaping  ma- 
chine, and  was  finally,  through  the  efforts  of  his  friends 
in  England,  appointed  to  a  post-office  clerkship  in  New 
Zealand,  which  colony  he  intended  to  quit  for  Cali- 
fornia or  Chili.  This  was  not  the  only  man  of  educa- 
tion whom  I  myself  found  upon  the  diggings,  as  I  met 
with  a  Christchurch  man,  who,  however,  had  left  Ox- 
ford without  a  degree,  actually  working  as  a  digger  in 
a  surface  mine. 

In  the  outskirts  of  Hokitika,  I  came  upon  a  palpable 
Life  Guardsman,  cooking  for  a  roadside  station,  with 
his  smock  worn  like  a  soldier's  tunic,  and  his  cap 
stuck  on  one  ear  in  Windsor  fashion.  A  "  squatter" 
from  near  Christchurch,  who  was  at  The  Buller,  selling 
sheep,  told  me  that  he  had  an  ex-captain  in  the  Guards 
at  work  for  weekly  wages  on  his  "sheep-run,"  and 
that  a  neighbor  had  a  lieutenant  of  lancers  rail-split- 
ting at  his  "  station." 

Neither  the  habits  nor  the  morals  of  this  strange 
community  are  of  the  best.  You  never  see  a  drunken 
man,  but  drinking  is  apparently  the  chief  occupation 
of  that  portion  of  the  town  population  which  is  not 
actually  employed  in  digging.  The  mail-coaches 
which  run  across  the  island  on  the  great  new  road, 
and  along  the  sands  to  the  other  mining  settlements, 
have  singularly  short  stages,  made  so,  it  would  seem, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  keepers  of  the  "  saloons,"  for  at 
every  halt  one  or  other  of  the  passengers  is  expected 
to  "shout,"  or  "  stand,"  as  it  would  be  called  at  home, 
" drinks  all  round."  "  What' 11  yer  shout?"  is  the  only 


HOKITIKA.  287 

question ;  and  want  of  coined  money  need  be  no  hinder- 
ance,  for  "  gold-dust  is  taken  at  the  bar."  One  of  the 
favorite  amusements  of  the  -diggers  at  Pakihi,  on  the 
days  when  the  store-schooner  arrives  from  Nelson,  is 
to  fill  a  bucket  with  champagne,  and  drink  till  they 
feel  "comfortable."  This  done,  they  seat  themselves 
in  the  road,  with  their  feet  on  the  window-sill  of  the 
shanty,  and,  calling  to  the  first  passer,  ask  him  to 
drink  from  the  bucket.  If  he  consents — good :  if  not, 
up  they  jump,  and  duck  his  head  in  the  wine,  which 
remains  for  the  next  comer. 

"When  I  left  Hokitika,  it  was  by  the  new  road,  170 
miles  in  length,  which  crosses  the  Alps  and  the  island, 
and  connects  Christchurch,  the  capital  of  Canterbury, 
with  the  western  parts  of  the  province.  The  bush  be- 
tween the  sea  and  mountains  is  extremely  lovely.  The 
highway  is  "corduroyed"  with  trunks  of  the  tree-fern, 
and,  in  the  swamps,  the  sleepers  have  commenced  to 
grow  at  each  end,  so  that  a  close-set  double  row  of 
young  tree-ferns  is  rising  along  portions  of  the  road. 
The  bush  is  densely  matted  with  an  undergrowth  of 
supple-jack  and  all  kinds  of  creepers,  but  here  and 
there  one  finds  a  grove  of  tree-ferns  twenty  feet  in 
height,  and  grown  so  thickly  as  to  prevent  the  exist- 
ence of  underwood  and  ground  plants. 

The  peculiarity  which  makes  the  New  Zealand  west- 
coast  scenery  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world  to  those 
who  like  more  green  than  California  has  to  show,  is 
that  here  alone  can  you  find  semi-tropical  vegetation 
growing  close  up  to  the  eternal  snows.  The  latitude 
and  the  great  moisture  of  the  climate  bring  the  long 
glaciers  very  low  into  the  valleys ;  and  the  absence  of 
all  true  winter,  coupled  with  the  rain-fall,  causes  the 
growth  of  palmlike  ferns  upon  the  ice-river's  very 
edge.  The  glaciers  of  Mount  Cook  are  the  longest  in 


288  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  world,  except  those  at  the  sources  of  the  Indus, 
but  close  about  them  have  been  found  tree-ferns  of 
thirty  and  forty  feet  in  height.  It  is  not  till  you  enter 
the  mountains  that  you  escape  the  moisture  of  the 
coast,  and  quit  for  the  scenery  of  the  Alps  the  scenery 
of  fairy-land. 

Bumping  and  tumbling  in  the  mail-cart  through  the 
rushing  blue-gray  waters  of  the  Taramakao,  I  found 
myself  within  the  mountains  of  the  Snowy  Range.  In 
the  Otira  Gorge,  also  know  as  Arthur's  Pass — from 
Arthur  Dobson,  brother  to  the  surveyor  murdered  by 
the  Thugs — six  small  glaciers  were  in  sight  at  once. 
The  Rocky  Mountains  opposite  to  Denver  are  loftier 
and  not  less  snowy  than  the  New  Zealand  Alps,  but  in 
the  Rockies  there  are  no  glaciers  south  of  about  50° 
N.;  while  in  New  Zealand — a  winterless  country — they 
are  common  at  eight  degrees  nearer  to  the  line.  The 
varying  amount  of  moisture  has  doubtless  caused  this 
difference. 

As  we  journeyed  through  the  pass,  there  was  one 
grand  view — and  only  one:  the  glimpse  of  the  ravine 
to  the  eastward  of  Mount  Rollestone,  caught  from  the 
desert  shore  of  Lake  Misery — a  tarn  near  the  "  divide" 
of  waters.  About  its  banks  there  grows  a  plant,  un- 
known, they  say,  except  at  this  lonely  spot — the  Rock- 
wood  lily — a  bushy  plant,  with  a  round,  polished,  con- 
cave leaf,  and  a  cup-shaped  flower  of  virgin  white,  that 
seems  to  take  its  tint  from  the  encircling  snows. 

In  the  evening,  we  had  a  view  that  for  gloomy  gran- 
deur cannot  well  be  matched — that  from  near  Bealey 
township,  where  we  struck  the  "Waimakiriri  Valley. 
The  river  bed  is  half  a  mile  in  width,  the  stream  itself 
not  more  than  ten  yards  across,  but,  like  all  New  Zea- 
land rivers,  subjects  to  freshets,  which  till  its  bed  to  a 
great  depth  with  a  surging,  foaming  flood.  Some  of 


HO  KIT  IK  A.  289 

the  victims  of  the  Waimakiriri  are  buried  alongside  the 
road.  Dark  evergreen  bush  shuts  in  the  river  bed, 
and  is  topped  on  the  one  side  by  dreary  frozen  peaks, 
and  on  the  other  by  still  gloomier  mountains  of  bare 
rock. 

Our  road,  next  morning,  from  The  Cass,  where  we 
had  spent  the  night,  lay  through  the  eastern  foot-hills 
and  down  to  Canterbury  Plains  by  way  of  Porter's 
Pass — a  narrow  track  on  the  top  of  a  tremendous 
precipice,  but  soon  to  be  changed  for  a  road  cut  along 
its  face.  The  plains  are  one  great  sheep-run,  open, 
almost  flat,  and  upon  which  you  lose  all  sense  of  size. 
At  the  mountain- foot  they  are  covered  with  tall,  coarse, 
native  grass,  and  are  dry,  like  the  Kansas  prairie;  about 
Christchurch,  the  English  clover  and  English  grasses 
have  usurped  the  soil,  and  all  is  fresh  and  green. 

New  Zealand  is  at  present  divided  into  nine  semi- 
independent  provinces,  of  which  three  are  large  and 
powerful,  and  the  remainder  comparatively  small  and 
poor.  Six  of  the  nine  are  true  States,  having  each  its 
history  as  an  independent  settlement ;  the  remaining 
three  are  creations  of  the  Federal  government  or  of 
the  crown. 

These  are  not  the  only  difficulties  in  the  way  of  New 
Zealand  statesmen,  for  the  provinces  themselves  are 
far  from  being  homogeneous  units.  Two  of  the 
wealthiest  of  all  the  States,  which  were  settled  as  col- 
onies with  a  religious  tinge — Otago,  Presbyterian;  and 
Canterbury,  Episcopalian — have  been  blessed  or  cursed 
with  the  presence  of  a  vast  horde  of  diggers,  of  no  par- 
ticular religion,  and  free  from  any  reverence  for  things 
established.  Canterbury  Province  is  not  only  politi- 
cally divided  against  itself,  but  geographically  split  in 
twain  by  the  Snowy  Range,  and  the  diggers  hold  the 

25 


290  GEE  ATE  R    BRITAIN. 

west-coast  bush,  the  old  settlers  the  east-coast  plain. 
East  and  west,  each  cries  out  that  the  other  side  is 
robbing  it.  The  Christchurch  people  say  that  their 
money  is  being  spent  on  Westland,  and  the  Westland 
diggers  cry  out  against  the  foppery  and  aristocratic 
pretense  of  Christchurch.  A  division  of  the  province 
seems  inevitable,  unless,  indeed,  the  "  Centralists"  gain 
the  day,  and  bring  about  either  a  closer  union  of  the 
whole  of  the  provinces,  coupled  with  a  grant  of  local 
self-government  to  their  subdivisions,  or  else  the  entire 
destruction  of  the  provincial  system. 

The  division  into  provinces  was  at  one  time  neces- 
sary, from  the  fact  that  the  settlements  were  histor- 
ically distinct,  and  physically  cut  off  from  each  other 
by  the  impenetrability  of  the  bush  and  the  absence  of 
all  roads;  but  the  barriers  are  now  surmounted,  and 
no  sufficient  reason  can  be  found  for  keeping  up  ten 
cabinets  and  ten  legislatures  for  a  population  of  only 
200,000  souls.  Such  is  the  costliness  of  the  provincial 
system  and  of  Maori  wars,  that  the  taxation  of  the 
New  Zealanders  is  nine  times  as  heavy  as  that  of  their 
brother  colonists  in  Canada. 

It  is  not  probable  that  so  costly  and  so  inefficient  a 
system  of  government  as  that  which  now  obtains  in 
New  Zealand  can  long  continue  to  exist.  It  is  not 
only  dear  and  bad,  but  dangerous  in  addition;  and 
during  my  visit  to  Port  Chalmers,  the  province  of 
Otago  was  loudly  threatening  secession.  Like  all 
other  federal  constitutions,  that  of  New  Zealand  fails 
to  provide  a  sufficiently  strong  central  power  to  meet 
a  divergence  of  interests  between  the  several  States. 
The  system  which  failed  in  Greece,  which  failed  in 
Germany,  which  failed  in  America,  has  failed  here  in 
the  antipodes;  and  it  may  be  said  that,  in  these  days 
of  improved  communications,  wherever  federation  is 


HO  KIT  IK  A.  291 

possible,  a  still  closer  union  is  at  least  as  likely  to  prove 
lasting. 

New  Zealand  suffers,  not  only  by  the  artificial  di- 
vision into  provinces,  but  also  by  the  physical  division 
of  the  country  into  two  great  islands,  too  far  apart  to 
be  ever  thoroughly  homogeneous,  too  near  together  to 
be  wholly  independent  of  each  other.  The  difficulty 
has  been  hitherto  increased  by  the  existence  in  the 
North  of  a  powerful  and  warlike  native  race,  all  but 
extinct  in  the  South  Island.  Not  only  have  the 
Southern  people  no  native  wars,  but  they  have  no 
native  claimants  from  whom  every  acre  for  the  settler 
must  be  bought,  and  they  naturally  decline  to  submit 
to  ruinous  taxation  to  purchase  Parewanui  from,  or  to 
defend  Taranaki  against,  the  Maories.  Having  been 
thwarted  by  the  Home  government  in  the  agitation  for 
the  "separation"  of  the  islands,  the  Southern  people 
now  aim  at  "Ultra-Provincialism,"  declaring  for  a  sys- 
tem under  which  the  provinces  would  virtually  be  in- 
dependent colonies,  connected  only  by  a  confederation 
of  the  loosest  kind. 

The  jealousies  of  the  great  towns,  here  as  in  Italy, 
have  much  bearing  upon  the  political  situation.  Auck- 
land is  for  separation,  because  in  that  event  it  would 
of  necessity  become  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the 
North  Island.  In  the  South,  Christchurch  and  Dun- 
edin  have  similar  claims ;  and  each  of  them,  ignoring 
the  other,  begs  for  separation  in  the  hope  of  becoming 
the  Southern  capital.  Wellington  and  Nelson  alone 
are  for  the  continuance  of  the  federation — Wellington 
because  it  is  already  the  capital,  and  Nelson  because 
it  is  intriguing  to  supplant  its  neighbor.  Although 
the  difficulties  of  the  moment  mainly  arise  out  of  the 
war  expenditure,  and  will  terminate  with  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  Maori  race,  her  geographical  shape  almost 


292  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

forbids  us  to  hope  that  New  Zealand  will  ever  form  a 
single  country  under  a  strong  central  government. 

To  obtain  an  adequate  idea  of  the  difficulty  of  his 
task,  a  new  governor,  on  landing  in  New  Zealand, 
could  not  do  better  than  cross  the  Southern  Island. 
On  the  west  side  of  the  mountains  he  would  find  a 
restless  digger-democracy,  likely  to  be  succeeded  in 
the  future  by  small  manufacturers,  and  spade-farmers 
growing  root-crops  upon  small  holdings  of  fertile  loam; 
on  the  east,  gentlemen  sheep-farmers,  holding  their 
twenty  thousand  acres  each ;  supporters  by  their  posi- 
tion of  the  existing  state  of  things,  or  of  an  aristocratic 
republic,  in  which  men  of  their  own  caste  would  rule. 

Christchurch — Episcopalian,  dignified — the  first  set- 
tlement in  the  province,  and  still  the  capital,  affects  to 
despise  Hokitika,  already  more  wealthy  and  more 
populous.  Christchurch  imports  English  rooks  to  caw 
in  the  elm-trees  of  her  cathedral  close ;  Hokitika  im- 
ports men.  Christchurch  has  not  fallen  away  from  her 
traditions:  every  street  is  named  from  an  English 
bishopric,  and  the  society  is  that  of  an  English  country 
town. 

Returning  northward,  along  the  coast,  in  the  shade 
of  the  cold  and  gloomy  mountains  of  the  Kaikoura 
Range,  I  found  at  Wellington  two  invitations  awaiting 
me  to  be  present  at  great  gatherings  of  the  native 
tribes. 

The  next  day  I  started  for  the  Manawatu  River  and 
Parewanui  Pah. 


POLYNESIANS.  293 


CHAPTER    III. 

POLYNESIANS. 

THE  name  "Maori"  is  said  to  mean  "native,"  but 
the  boast  on  the  part  of  the  Maori  race  contained  in 
the  title  "Natives  of  the  Soil"  is  one  which  conflicts 
with  their  traditions.  These  make  them  out  to  be 
mere  interlopers — Tahitians,  they  themselves  say — 
who,  within  historic  ages,  sailed  down  island  by  island 
in  their  war  canoes,  massacring  the  inhabitants,  and, 
finally  landing,  in  New  Zealand,  found  a  numerous 
horde  of  blacks  of  the  Australian  race  living  in  the 
forests  of  the  South  Island.  Favored  by  a  year  of 
exceptional  drought,  they  set  fire  to  the  woods,  and 
burnt  to  the  last  man,  or  drove  into  the  sea  the  aborig- 
inal possessors  of  the  soil.  Some  ethnologists  believe 
that  this  account  is  in  the  main  correct,  but  hold  that 
the  Maori  race  is  Malay,  and  not  originally  Tahitiari  : 
others  have  tried  to  show  that  the  conflict  between 
blacks  and  browns  was  not  confined  to  these  two 
islands,  but  raged  throughout  the  whole  of  Polynesia; 
and  that  it  was  terminated  in  New  Zealand  itself,  not 
by  the  destruction  of  the  blacks,  but  by  the  amalga- 
mation of  the  opposing  races. 

The  legends  allege  war  as  the  cause  for  the  flight  to 
New  Zealand.  The  accounts  of  some  of  the  migrations 
are  circumstantial  in  the  extreme,  and  describe  the 
first  planting  of  the  yams,  the  astonishment  of  the 
people  at  the  new  flowers  and  trees  of  the  islands,  and 
many  such  details  of  the  landing.  The  names  of  the 

25* 


294  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

chiefs  and  of  the  canoes  are  given  in  a  sort  of  "cata- 
logue of  ships,"  and  the  wars  of  the  settlers  are  nar- 
rated at  length,  with  the  heroic  exaggeration  common 
to  the  legends  of  all  lands. 

The  canoe  fleet  reached  New  Zealand  in  the  fifteenth 
century  it  is  believed,  and  the  people  landed  chanting 
a  chorus-speech,  which  is  still  preserved  : 

11  We  come  at  last  to  this  fair  land — a  resting-place  ; 
Spirit  of  the  Earth,  to  thee,  we,  coming  from  afar,  present  our 
hearts  for  food." 

That  the  Maories  are  Polynesians  there  can  be  no 
doubt :  a  bird  with  them  is  "  manu,"  a  fish  "  ika"  (the 
Greek  <"/#u<r,  become  with  the  digamma  "piscis"  and 
"poisson;"  and  connected  with  "fisch,"  and  "fish"), 
as  they  are  throughout  the  Malayan  archipelago  and 
Polynesian  isles ;  the  Maori  "  atua,"  a  god,  is  the 
"hotua"  of  the  Friendly  Islanders;  the  "wahres,"  or 
native  huts,  are  identical  in  all  the  islands ;  the  names 
of  the  chief  deities  are  the  same  throughout  Polynesia, 
and  the  practice  of  tattooing,  the  custom  of  carving 
grotesque  squatting  figures  on  tombs,  canoes,  and 
<rpahs,"  and  that  of  tabooing  things,  places,  times,  and 
persons,  prevail  from  Hawaii  to  Stewart's  Land,  though 
not  everywhere  so  strictly  read  as  in  the  Tonga  Isles, 
where  the  very  ducks  are  muzzled  to  keep  them  from 
disturbing  by  their  quacking  the  sacred  stillness  of 
"tapu  time." 

Polynesian  traditions  mostly  point  to  the  Malay 
peninsula  as  the  cradle  of  the  race,  and  the  personal 
resemblance  of  the  Maories  to  the  Malays  is  very 
strong,  except  in  the  setting  of  the  eyes ;  while  the 
figures  on  the  gate-posts  of  the  New  Zealand  pahs  have 
eyes  more  oblique  than  are  now  found  among  the 
Maori  people.  Strangely  enough,  the  New  Zealand 


POLYNESIANS.  295 

"pah"  is  identical  with  the  Burmese  " stockade,"  but 
the  word  "  pah"  stands  both  for  the  palisade  and  for 
the  village  of  wahres  which  it  contains.  The  Poly- 
nesian and  Malay  tongues  have  not  much  in  common  ; 
but  that  variations  of  language  sufficiently  great  to 
leave  no  apparent  tie  spring  up  in  a  few  centuries, 
cannot  be  denied  by  us  who  know  for  certain  that 
"  visible"  and  "optician"  come  from  a  common  root, 
and  can  trace  the  steps  through  which  "jour"  is  de- 
rived from  "dies." 

The  tradition  of  the  Polynesians  is  that  they  came 
from  Paradise,  which  they  place,  in  the  southern 
islands,  to  the  north ;  in  the  northern  islands,  to  the 
westward.  This  legend  indicates  a  migration  from 
Asia  to  the  northern  islands,  and  thence  southward  to 
New  Zealand,  and  accounts  for  the  non-colonization  of 
Australia  by  the  Polynesians.  The  sea  between  New 
Zealand,  and  Australia  is  too  rough  and  wide  to  be 
traversed  by  canoes,  and  the  wind-chart  shows  that  the 
track  of  the  Malays  must  have  been  eastward  along 
the  equatorial  belt  of  calms,  and  then  back  to  the  south- 
west with  the  southeast  trade- wind  right  abeam  to  their 
canoes. 

The  wanderings  of  the  Polynesian  race  were,  pro- 
bably, not  confined  to  the  Pacific.  Ethnology  is  as 
yet  in  its  infancy :  we  know  nothing  of  the  Tudas  of 
the  Neilgherries ;  we  ask  in  vain  who  are  the  Gonds; 
we  are  in  doubt  about  the  Japanese  ;  we  are  lost  in 
perplexity  as  to  who  we  may  be  ourselves  ;  but  there 
is  at  least  as  much  ground  for  the  statement  that  the 
Red  Indians  are  Malays  as  for  the  assertion  that  we  are 
Saxons. 

The  resemblances  between  the  Red  Indians  and  the 
Pacific  Islanders  are  innumerable.  Strachey's  account 
of  the  Indians  of  Virginia,  written  in  1612,  needs  but  a 


296  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

change  in  the  names  to  fit  the  Maories:  Powhdtan's 
house  is  that  of  William  Thompson.  Cannibalism 
prevailed  in  Brazil  and  along  the  Pacific  coast  of  North 
America  at  the  time  of  their  discovery,  and  even  the 
Indians  of  Chili  ate  many  an  early  navigator ;  the 
aborigines  of  Vancouver  Island  are  tattooed;  their 
canoes  resemble  those  of  the  Malays,  and  the  mode  of 
paddling  is  the  same  from  New  Zealand  to  Hudson's 
Bay — from  Florida  to  Singapore.  Jade  ornaments  of 
the  shape  of  the  Maori  "  Heitiki"  (the  charm  worn 
about  the  neck)  have  been  found  by  the  French  in 
Guadaloupe ;  the  giant  masonry  of  Central  America 
is  identical  with  that  of  Cambodia  and  Siam.  Small- 
legged  squatting  figures,  like  those  of  the  idols  of  China 
and  Japan,  not  only  surmount  the  gate-posts  of  the  New 
Zealand  pahs,  but  are  found  eastward  to  Honduras, 
westward  to  Burmah,  to  Tartary,  and  to  Ceylon.  The 
fiber  mats,  common  to  Polynesia  and  Eed  India,  are 
unknown  to  savages  elsewhere,  and  the  feather  head- 
dresses of  the  Maories  are  almost  identical  with  those 
of  the  Delawares  or  Hurons. 

In  the  Indians  of  America  and  of  Polynesia  there 
is  the  same  hatred  of  continued  toil,  and  the  same 
readiness  to  engage  in  violent  exertion  for  a  time.  Su- 
perstition and  witchcraft  are  common  to  all  untaught 
peoples,  but  in  the  Malays  and  red  men  they  take 
similar  shapes;  and  the  Indians  of  Mexico  and  Peru 
had,  like  all  the  Polynesians,  a  sacred  language,  un- 
derstood only  by  the  priests.  The  American  altars 
were  one  with  the  temples  of  the  Pacific,  and  were  not 
confined  to  Mexico,  for  they  form  the  "  mounds"  of 
Ohio  and  Illinois.  There  is  great  likeness  between 
the  legend  of  Maui,  the  Maori  hero,  and  that  of  Hia- 
watha, especially  in  the  history  of  how  the  sun  was 
noosed,  and  made  to  move  more  slowly  through  the 


POLYNESIANS.  297 

skies,  so  as  to  give  men  long  days  for  toil.  The  re- 
semblance of  the  Maori  "runanga,"  or  assembly  for 
debate,  to  the  Indian  council  is  extremely  close,  and 
throughout  America  and  Polynesia  a  singular  blending 
of  poetry  and  ferocity  is  characteristic  of  the  Malays. 

In  color,  the  Indians  and  Polynesians  are  not  alike ; 
but  color  does  not  seem  to  be,  ethnologically  speaking, 
of  much  account.  The  Hindoos  of  Calcutta  have  the 
same  features  as  those  of  Delhi ;  but  the  former  are 
black,  the  latter  brown,  or,  if  high-caste  men,  almost 
white.  Exposure  to  sun,  in  a  damp,  hot  climate, 
seems  to  blacken  every  race  that  it  does  not  destroy. 
The  races  that  it  will  finally  destroy,  tropical  heat  first 
whitens.  The  English  planters  of  Mississippi  and  Flor- 
ida are  extremely  dark,  yet  there  is  not  a  suspicion  of 
black  blood  in  their  veins :  it  is  the  white  blood  of  the 
slaves  to  which  the  Abolitionists  refer  in  their  philip- 
pics. The  Jews  at  Bombay  and  Aden  are  of  a  deep 
brown ;  in  Morocco  they  are  swarthy ;  in  England, 
nearly  white. 

Religious  rites  and  social  customs  outlast  both  phys- 
ical type  and  language ;  but  even  were  it  otherwise, 
there  is  great  resemblance  in  build  and  feature  be- 
tween the  Polynesians  and  many  of  the  "Red-Indian'* 
tribes.  The  aboriginal  people  of  New  York  State  are 
described  by  the  early  navigators  not  as  tall,  grave, 
hooked-nose  men,  but  as  copper  colored,  pleasant  look- 
ing, and  with  quick,  shrewd  eyes;  and  the  Mexican 
Indian  bears  more  likeness  to  the  Sandwich  Islander 
than  to  the  Delaware  or  Cherokee. 

In  reaching  South  America,  there  were  no  distances 
to  be  overcome  such  as  to  present  insurmountable  dif- 
ficulties to  the  Malays.  Their  canoes  have  frequently, 
within  the  years  that  we  have  had  our  missionary 
stations  in  the  islands,  made  involuntary  voyages  of 


298  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

six  or  seven  hundred  miles.  A  Western  editor  has 
said  of  Columbus  that  he  deserves  no  praise  for  dis- 
covering America,  as  it  is  so  large  that  he  could  not 
well  have  missed  it;  but  Easter  Island  is  so  small,  that 
the  chances  must  have  been  thousands  to  one  against 
its  being  reached  by  canoes  sailing  even  from  the  near- 
est land;  yet  it  is  an  ascertained  fact  that  Easter  Island 
was  peopled  by  the  Polynesians.  Whatever  drove 
canoes  to  Easter  Island  would  have  driven  them  from 
the  island  to  Chili  and  Peru.  The  Polynesian  Malays 
would  sometimes  be  taken  out  to  sea  by  sudden  storms, 
by  war,  by  hunger,  by  love  of  change.  In  war  time, 
whole  tribes  have,  within  historic  days,  been  clapped 
into  their  boats,  and  sent  to  sea  by  a  merciful  con- 
queror who  had  dined:  this  occurs,  however,  only 
when  the  market  is  already  surfeited  with  human 
joints. 

In  sailing  from  America  to  New  Zealand,  we  met 
strong  westerly  winds  before  we  had  gone  half  way 
across  the  seas,  and,  south  of  the  trade-wind  region, 
these  blow  constantly  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
American  coast,  where  they  are  lost  upon  the  edge  of 
the  Chilian  current.  A  canoe  blown  off  from  the 
southern  islands,  and  running  steadily  before  the  wind, 
would  be  cast  on  the  Peruvian  coast  near  Quito. 

When  Columbus  landel  in  the  Atlantic  islands,  he 
was,  perhaps,  not  mistaken  in  his  belief  that  it  was 
"The  Indies"  that  he  had  found — an  India  peopled  by 
the  Malay  race,  till  lately  the  most  widely-scattered  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  world,  but  one  which  the  English 
seem  destined  to  supplant. 

The  Maories,  without  doubt,  were  originally  Malays, 
emigrants  from  the  winterless  climate  of  the  Malay 
peninsula  and  Polynesian  archipelago;  and,  although 
the  northernmost  portions  of  New  Zealand  suited  them 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  299 

not  ill,  the  cold  winters  of  the  South  Island  prevented 
the  spread  of  the  bands  they  planted  there.  At  all 
times  it  has  been  remarked  by  ethnologists  and  accli- 
matizers  that  it  is  easier  by  far  to  carry  men  and  beasts 
from  the  poles  toward  the  tropics  than  from  the  tropics 
to  the  colder  regions.  The  Malays,  in  coming  to  New 
Zealand,  unknowingly  broke  one  of  Nature's  laws,  and 
their  descendants, are  paying  the  penalty  in  extinction. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

PAREWANUI    PAH. 

"HERE  is  Petatone. 
This  is  the  10th  of  December; 
The  sun  shines,  and  the  birds  sing; 
Clear  is  the  water  in  rivers  and  streams ; 
Bright  is  the  sky,  and  the  sun  is  high  in  the  air. 
This  is  the  10th  of  December ; 
But  where  is  the  money  ? 

Three  years  has  this  matter  in  many  debates  been  discussed, 
And  here  at  last  is  Petatone; 
But  where  is  the  money?" 

A  band  of  Maori  women,  slowly  chanting  in  a  high, 
strained  key,  stood  at  the  gate  of  a  pah,  and  met  with 
this  song  a  few  Englishmen  who  were  driving  rapidly 
on  to  their  land. 

Our  track  lay  through  a  swamp  of  the  New  Zealand 
flax.  Huge  swordlike  leaves  and  giant  flower-stalks 
all  but  hid  from  view  the  Maori  stockades.  To  the 
left  was  a  village  of  low  wahres,  fenced  round  with  a 
double  row  of  lofty  posts,  carved  with  rude  images  of 
gods  and  men,  and  having  posterns  here  and  there. 


300  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

On  the  right  were  groves  of  karakas,  children  of  Tane- 
mahuta,  the  New  Zealand  sacred  trees — under  their 
shade,  on  a  hill,  a  camp  and  another  and  larger  pah. 
In  startling  contrast  to  the  dense  masses  of  the  oily 
leaves,  there  stretched  a  great  extent  of  light-green 
sward,  where  there  were  other  camps  and  a  tall  flag- 
staff, from  which  floated  the  white  flag  and  the  Union 
Jack,  emblems  of  British  sovereignty  and  peace. 

A  thousand  kilted  Maories  dotted  the  green  land- 
scape with  patches  of  brilliant  tartans  and  scarlet  cloth. 
Women  lounged  about,  whiling  away  the  time  with 
dance  and  song;  and  from  all  the  corners  of  the  glade 
the  soft  cadence  of  the  Maori  cry  of  welcome  came 
floating  to  us  on  the  breeze,  sweet  as  the  sound  of  dis- 
tant bells. 

As  we  drove  quickly  on,  we  found  ourselves  in  the 
midst  of  a  thronging  crowd  of  square-built  men,  brown 
in  color,  and  for  the  most  part  not  much  darker  than 
Spaniards,  but  with  here  and  there  a  woolly  negro  in 
their  ranks.  Glancing  at  them  as  we  were  hurried 
past,  we  saw  that  the  men  were  robust,  well  limbed, 
and  tall.  They  greeted  us  pleasantly  with  many  a 
cheerful,  open  smile,  but  the  faces  of  the  older  people 
were  horribly  tattooed  in  spiral  curves.  The  chiefs 
carried  battle-clubs  of  jade  and  bone  ;  the  women  wore 
strange  ornaments.  At  the  flagstaff  we  pulled  up, 
and,  while  the  preliminaries  of  the  council  were  ar- 
ranged, had  time  to  discuss  with  Maori  and  with 
"Pak£ha"  (white  mau)  the  questions  that  had  brought 
us  thither. 

The  purchase  of  an  enormous  block  of  land — that 
of  the  Manawatu — had  long  been  an  object  wished  for 
and  worked  for  by  the  Provincial  Government  of  Wel- 
lington. The  completion  of  the  sale  it  was  that  had 
brought  the  Superintendent,  Dr.  Featherston,  and 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  301 

humbler  Pakehas  to  Pare  wan  ui  Pah.  It  was  not  only 
that  the  land  was  wanted  by  way  of  room  for  the  flood 
of  settlers,  but  purchase  by  government  was,  more- 
over, the  only  means  whereby  war  between  the  various 
native  claimants  of  the  land  could  be  prevented.  The 
Pake'ha  and  Maori  had  agreed  upon  a  price ;  the  ques- 
tion that  remained  for  settlement  was  how  the  money 
should  be  shared.  One  tribe  had  owned  the  land  from 
the  earliest  times;  another  had  conquered  some  miles 
of  it;  a  third  had  had  one  of  its  chiefs  cooked  and 
eaten  upon  the  ground.  In  the  eye  of  the  Maori  law, 
the  last  of  these  titles  was  the  best:  the  blood  of  a 
chief  overrides  all  mere  historic  claims.  The  two 
strongest  human  motives  concurred  to  make  war  prob- 
able, for  avarice  and  jealousy  alike  prevented  agree- 
ment as  to  the  division  of  the  spoil.  Each  of  the  three 
tribes  claiming  had  half  a  dozen  allied  and  related 
nations  upon  the  ground ;  every  man  was  there  who 
had  a  claim,  direct  or  indirect,  or  thought  he  had,  to 
any  portion  of  the  block.  Individual  ownership  and 
tribal  ownership  conflicted.  The  Ngatiapa  were  well 
armed;  the  Ngatiraukawa  had  their  rifles;  the  Wang- 
anuis  had  sent  for  theirs.  The  greatest  tact  on  the 
part  of  Dr.  Featherston  was  needed  to  prevent  a  tight 
such  as  would  have  roused  New  Zealand  from  Auck- 
land to  Port  Nicholson. 

On  a  signal  from  the  Superintendent,  the  heralds 
went  round  the  camps  and  pahs  to  call  the  tribes  to 
council.  The  summons  was  a  long-drawn  minor- 
descending-scale  :  a  plaintiff  cadence,  which  at  a  dis- 
tance blends  into  a  bell-like  chord.  The  words  mean: 
"  Come  hither!  Come  hither!  Come!  come!  Maories! 

Come !"  and  men,  women,  and  children  soon  came 

thronging  in  from  every  side,  the  chiefs  bearing  scepters 
and  spears  of  ceremony,  and  their  women  wearing 

26 


302  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

round  their  necks  the  symbol  of  nobility,  the  Heitiki, 
or  greenstone  god.  These  images,  we  were  told,  have 
pedigrees,  and  names  like  those  of  men. 

•We,  with  the  resident  magistrate  of  Wanganui, 
seated  ourselves  beneath  the  flagstaff.  A  chief,  meet- 
ing the  people  as  they  came  up,  stayed  them  with  the 
gesture  that  Homer  ascribes  to  Hector,  and  bade  them 
sit  in  a  huge  circle  round  the  spar. 

No  sooner  were  we  seated  on  our  mat  than  there 
ran  slowly  into  the  center  of  the  ring  a  plumed  and 
kilted  chief,  with  sparkling  eyes,  the  perfection  of  a 
savage.  Halting  suddenly,  he  raised  himself  upon  his 
toes,  frowned,  and  stood  brandishing  his  short  feathered 
spear.  It  was  Hunia  t£  Hake'ke',  the  young  chief  of 
the  Ngatiapa. 

Throwing  off  his  plaid,  he  commenced  to  speak, 
springing  hither  and  thither  with  leopard-like  freedom 
of  gait,  and  sometimes  leaping  high  into  the  air  to 
emphasize  a  word.  Fierce  as  were  the  gestures,  his 
speech  was  conciliatory,  and  the  Maori  flowed  from 
his  lips — a  soft  Tuscan  tongue.  As,  with  a  movement 
full  of  vigorous  grace,  he  sprang  back  to  the  ranks,  to 
take  his  seat,  there  ran  round  the  ring  a  hum  and  buzz 
of  popular  applause. 

"  Governor"  Hunia  was  followed  by  a  young  Wan- 
ganui  chief,  who  wore  hunting  breeches  and  high 
boots,  and  a  long  black  mantle  over  his  European 
clothes.  There  was  something  odd  in  the  shape  of  the 
cloak ;  and  when  we  came  to  look  closely  at  it,  we 
found  that  it  was  the  skirt  of  the  riding-habit  of  his 
half-caste  wife.  The  great  chiefs  paid  so  little  heed  to 
this  flippant  fellow,  as  to  stand  up  and  harangue  their 
tribes  in  the  middle  of  his  speech,  which  came  thus  to 
an  untimely  end. 

A  funny  old  graybeard,  Waite>£  Maru  Maru,  next 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  303 

rose,  and,  smothering  down  the  jocularity  of  his  face, 
turned  toward  us  for  a  moment  the  typical  head  of 
Peter,  as  you  see  it  on  the  windows  of  every  modern 
church — for  a  moment  only,  for,  as  he  raised  his  hand 
to  wave  his  tribal  scepter,  his  apostolic  drapery  began 
to  slip  from  off  his  shoulders,  and  he  had  to  clutch  at 
it  with  the  energy  of  a  topman  taking-in  a  reef  in  a 
whole  gale.  His  speech  was  full  of  Nestorian  proverbs 
and  wise  saws,  but  he  wandered  off  into  a  history  of 
the  Wanganui  lands,  by  which  he  soon  became  as 
wearied  as  we  ourselves  were ;  for  he  stopped  short, 
and,  with  a  twinkle  of  the  eye,  said :  "  Ah  !  Waite're' 
is  no  longer  young:  he  is  climbing  the  snow-clad 
mountain  Kuanine* ;  he  is  becoming  an  old  man;"  and 
down  he  sat. 

Karanama,  a  small  Ngatiraukawa  chief  with  a  white 
moustache,  who  looked  like  an  old  French  concierge, 
followed  Maru  Maru,  and,  with  much  use  of  his  scepter, 
related  a  dream  foretelling  the  happy  issue  of  the 
negotiations;  for  the  little  man  was  one  of  those 
"  dreamers  of  dreams"  against  whom  Moses  warned 
the  Israelites. 

Karanama's  was  not  the  only  trance  and  vision  of 
which  we  heard  in  the  course  of  these  debates.  The 
Maories  believe  that  in  their  dreams  the  seers  hear 
great  bands  of  spirits  singing  chants  :  these  when  they 
wake  the  prophets  reveal  to  all  the  people;  but  it  is 
remarked  that  the  vision  is  generally  to  the  advantage 
of  the  seer's  tribe. 

Karanama's  speech  was  answered  by  the  head  chief 
of  the  Rangitane'  Maories,  Te  Peeti  Te  Awe  Awe,  who, 
throwing  off  his  upper  clothing  as  he  warmed  to  his 
subject,  and  strutting  pompously  round  and  round  the 
ring,  challenged  Karanama  to  immediate  battle,  or  his 
tribe  to  general  encounter ;  but  he  cooled  down  as  he 


304  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

went  on,  and  in  his  last  sentence  showed  us  that  Maori 
oratory,  however  ornate  usually,  can  be  made  extremely 
terse.  "  It  is  hot,"  he  said — "it  is  hot,  and  the  very 
birds  are  loath  to  sing.  We  have  talked  for  a  week, 
and  are  therefore  dry.  Let  us  take  our  share — £10,000, 
or  whatever  we  can  get,  and  then  we  shall  be  dry  no 
more." 

The  Maori  custom  of  walking  about,  dancing,  leaping, 
undressing,  running,  and  brandishing  spears  during 
the  delivery  of  a  speech  is  convenient  for  all  parties : 
to  the  speaker,  because  it  gives  him  time  to  think  of 
what  he  shall  say  next ;  to  the  listener,  because  it  allows 
him  to  weigh  the  speaker's  words ;  to  the  European 
hearer,  because  it  permits  the  interpreter  to  keep  pace 
with  the  orator  without  an  effort.  On  this  occasion, 
the  resident  magistrate  of  Wanganui,  Mr.  Buller,  a 
Maori  scholar  of  eminence,  and  the  attached  friend  of 
some  of  the  chiefs,  interpreted  for  Dr.  Featherston ; 
and  we  were  allowed  to  lean  over  him  in  such  a  way  as 
to  hear  every  word  that  passed.  That  the  able  Super- 
intendent of  Wellington — the  great  protector  of  the 
Maories,  the  man  to  whom  they  look  as  to  Queen  Vic- 
toria's second  in  command,  should  be  wholly  depend- 
ent upon  interpreters,  however  skilled,  seems  almost 
too  singular  to  be  believed ;  but  it  is  possible  that  Dr. 
Featherston  may  find  in  pretended  want  of  knowledge 
much  advantage  to  the  government.  He  is  able  to 
collect  his  thoughts  before  he  replies  to  a  difficult 
question  ;  he  can  allow  an  epithet  to  escape  his  notice 
in  the  filter  of  translation ;  he  can  listen  and  speak 
with  greater  dignity. 

The  day  was  wearing  on  before  Td  Peeti's  speech 
was  done,  and,  as  the  Maories  say,  our  waistbands  be- 
gan to  slip  down  low;  so  all  now  went  to  lunch,  both 
Maori  and  Pake'ha,  they  sitting  in  circles,  each  with 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  305 

his  bowl,  or  flax-blade  dish,  and  wooden  spoon,  we 
having  a  table  and  a  chair  or  two  in  the  Mission- 
house  ;  but  we  were  so  tempted  by  Hori  Kingi's  white- 
bait that  we  begged  some  of  him  as  we  passed.  The 
Maories  boil  the  little  fish  in  milk,  and  flavor  them 
with  leeks.  Great  fish,  meat,  vegetables,  almost  all 
they  eat,  in  short,  save  whitebait,  is  "steamed"  in  the 
underground  native  oven.  A  hole  is  dug,  and  filled 
with  wood,  and  stones  are  piled  upon  the  wood,  a 
small  opening  being  left  for  draught.  While  the  wood 
is  burning,  the  stones  become  red-hot,  and  fall  through 
into  the  hole.  They  are  then  covered  with  damp  fern, 
or  else  with  wet  mats  of  flax,  plaited  at  the  moment;  the 
meat  is  put  in,  and  covered  with  more  mats ;  the  whole 
is  sprinkled  with  water,  and  then  earth  is  heaped  on 
till  the  vapor  ceases  to  escape.  The  joint  takes  about 
an  hour,  and  is  delicious.  Fish  is  wrapped  in  a  kind 
of  dock-leaf,  and  so  steamed. 

While  the  men's  eating  was  thus  going  on,  many  of 
the  women  stood  idly  round,  and  we  were  enabled  to 
judge  of  Maori  beauty.  A  profusion  of  long,  crisp 
curls,  a  short  black  pipe  thrust  between  stained  lips,  a 
pair  of  black  eyes  gleaming  from  a  tattooed  face,  de- 
note the  Maori  belle,  who  wears  for  her  only  robe  a 
long  bedgown  of  dirty  calico,  but  whose  ears  and  neck 
are  tricked  out  with  greenstone  ornaments,  the  signs 
of  birth  and  wealth.  Here  and  there  you  find  a  girl 
with  long,  smooth  tresses,  and  almond-shaped  black 
eyes :  these  charms  often  go  along  with  prominent,  thin 
features,  and  suggest  at  once  the  Jewess  and  the  gipsy 
girl.  The  women  smoke  continually;  the  men,  not 
much. 

When  at  four  o'clock  we  returned  to  the  flagstaff, 
we  found  that  the  temperature,  which  during  the 
morning  had  been  too  hot,  had  become  that  of  a  fine 

26* 


306  GREATER   BRITAIN, 

English  June — the  air  light,  the  trees  and  grass  lit  by 
a  gleaming  yellow  sunshine  that  reminded  me  of  the 
Californian  haze. 

During  luncheon  we  had  heard  that  Dr.  Featherston's 
proposals  as  to  the  division  of  the  purchase-money  had 
been  accepted  by  the  Ngatiapa,  but  not  by  Hunia  him- 
self, whose  vanity  would  brook  no  scheme  not  of  his 
own  conception.  We  were  no  sooner  returned  to  the 
ring  than  he  burst  in  upon  us  with  a  defiant  speech. 
"Unjust,"  he  declared,  "as  was  the  proposition  of 
great  'Pe'tatone''  (Featherston),  he  would  have  ac- 
cepted it  for  the  sake  of  peace  had  he  been  allowed  to 
divide  the  tribal  share ;  but  as  the  Wanganuis  insisted 
on  having  a  third  of  his  £15,000,  and  as  P£taton£ 
seemed  to  support  them  in  their  claim,  he  should  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  the  sale."  "The  Wangenuis 
claim  as  our  relatives,"  he  said:  "verily,  the  pumpkin- 
shoots  spread  far." 

Karanama,  the  seer,  stood  up  to  answer  Hunia,  and 
began  his  speech  in  a  tone  of  ridicule.  "  Hu-nia  is  like 
the  ti-tree :  if  you  cut  him  down  he  sprouts  again." 
Hunia  sat  quietly  through  a  good  deal  of  this  kind  of 
wit,  till  at  last  some  epithet  provoked  him  to  interrupt 
the  speaker.  "  What  a  fine  fellow  you  are,  Karanama; 
you'll  tell  us  soon  that  you've  two  pair  of  legs."  "  Sit 
down !"  shrieked  Karanama,  and  a  word-war  ensued, 
but  the  abuse  was  too  full  of  native  raciness  and 
vigor  to  be  fit  for  English  ears.  The  chiefs  kept  danc- 
ing round  the  ring,  threatening  each  other  with  their 
spears.  "Why  do  you  not  hurl  at  me,  Karanama?" 
said  Hunia;  "it  is  easier  to  parry  spears  than  lies." 
At  last  Hunia  sat  down. 

Karanama,  feinting  and  making  at  him  with  his 
spear,  reproached  Hunia  with  a  serious  flaw  in  his 
pedigree — a  blot  which  is  said  to  account  for  Hunia's 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  307 

• 

hatred  to  the  Ngatiraukawa,  to  whom  his  mother  was 
for  years  a  slave.  Hunia,  without  rising  from  the 
ground,  shrieked  "Liar!"  Karanama  again  spoke  the 
obnoxious  word.  Springing  from  the  ground,  Hunia 
snatched  his  spear  from  where  it  stood,  and  ran  at  his 
enemy  as  though  to  strike  him.  Karanama  stood  stock- 
still.  Coming  up  to  him  at  a  charge,  Hunia  suddenly 
stopped,  raised  himself  on  tiptoe,  shaking  his  spear, 
and  flung  out  some  contemptuous  epithet;  then  turned, 
and  stalked  slowly,  with  a  springing  gait,  back  to  his 
own  corner  of  the  ring.  There  he  stood,  haranguing 
his  people  in  a  bitter  undertone.  Karanarna  did  the 
like  with  his.  The  interpreters  could  not  keep  pace 
with  what  was  said.  We  understood  that  the  chiefs 
were  calling  each  upon  his  tribe  to  support  him,  if  need 
were,  in  war.  After  a  few  minutes  of  this  pause  they 
wheeled  round,  as  though  by  a  common  impulse,  and 
again  began  to  pour  out  torrents  of  abuse.  The  ap- 
plause became  frequent,  hums  quickened  into  shouts, 
cheer  followed  cheer,  till  at  last  the  ring  was  alive  with 
men  and  women  springing  from  the  ground,  and  cry- 
ing out  on  the  opposing  leader  for  a  dastard. 

We  had  previously  been  told  to  have  no  fear  that 
resort  would  be  had  to  blows.  The  Maories  never  tight 
upon  a  sudden  quarrel:  war  is  with  them  a  solemn  act, 
entered  upon  only  after  much  deliberation.*  Those  of 
us  who  were  strangers  to  New  Zealand  were  neverthe- 
less not  without  our  doubts,  while  for  half  an  hour  we 
lay  upon  the  grass  watching  the  armed  champions 
running  round  the  ring,  challenging  each  other  to 
mortal  combat  on  the  spot. 

The  chieftains  at  last  became  exhausted,  and  the 
Mission-bell  beginning  to  toll  for  evening  chapel,  Hunia 
broke  off  in  the  middle  of  his  abuse  :  "Ah  !  I  hear  the 
bell!"  and,  turning,  stalked  out  of  the  ring  toward  his 


308  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

pah,  leaving  it  to  be  inferred,  by  tbose  who  did  not 
know  him,  that  he  was  going  to  attend  the  service. 
The  meeting  broke  up  in  confusion,  and  the  Upper 
Wanganui  tribes  at  once  began  their  march  toward 
the  mountains,  leaving  behind  them  only  a  delegation 
of  their  chiefs. 

As  we  drove  down  to  the  coast,  we  talked  over  the 
close  resemblance  of  the  Maori  runanga  to  the  Homeric 
council ;  it  had  struck  us  all.  Here,  as  in  the  Greek 
camp,  we  had  the  ring  of  people,  into  which  advanced 
the  lance-bearing  or  scepter-bearing  chiefs,  they  alone 
speaking,  and  the  people  backing  them  only  by  a  hum : 
"  The  block  of  wood  dictates  not  to  the  carver,  neither 
the  people  to  their  chiefs,"  is  a  Maori  proverb.  The 
boasting  of  ancestry,  and  bragging  of  deeds  and  mili- 
tary exploits,  to  which  modern  wind-bags  would  only 
casually  allude,  was  also  thoroughly  Homeric.  In 
Hunia  we  had  our  Achilles;  the  retreat  of  Hunia  to 
his  wahn*  was  that  of  Achilles  to  his  tent ;  the  cause  of 
quarrel  alone  was  different,  though  in  both  cases  it 
arose  out  of  the  division  of  spoil,  in  the  one  case  the 
result  of  lucky  wars,  in  the  other  of  the  Pak^ha's  weak- 
ness. The  Argive  and  Maori  leaders  are  one  in  fire, 
figure,  port,  and  mien;  alike,  too,  even  in  their  sulki- 
ness.  In  Waite're'  and  Aperahama  Tipai  we  had  two 
Nestors;  our  Thersites  was  Porea,  the  jester,  a  half- 
mad  buffoon,  continually  mimicking  the  chiefs  or  in- 
terrupting them,  and  being  by  them  or  their  messen- 
gers as  often  kicked  and  cuffed.  In  the  frequency  of 
repetition,  the  use  of  proverbs  and  of  simile,  the  Mao- 
ries  resemble  not  Homer's  Greeks  so  much  as  Homer's 
self;  but  the  calling  together  of  the  people  by  the 
heralds,  the  secret  conclave  of  the  chiefs,  the  feast,  the 
conduct  of  the  assembly — -all  were  the  exact  repetition 
of  the  events  recorded  in  the  first  and  second  books  ot 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  309 

the  "  Iliad"  as  having  happened  on  the  Trojan  plains. 
The  single  point  of  difference  was  not  in  favor  of  the 
Greeks ;  the  Maori  women  took  their  place  in  council 
with  the  men. 

As  we  drove  home,  a  storm  came  on,  and  hung 
about  the  coast  so  long,  that  it  was  not  till  near  eleven 
at  night  that  we  were  able  to  take  our  swim  in  the 
heated  waters  of  the  Manawatu  River,  and  frighten  off 
every  duck  and  heron  in  the  district. 

In  the  morning,  we  rose  to  alarming  news.  Upon 
the  pretext  of  the  presence  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Hau-Hau  chief  Wi  Hapi,  with  a  war  party  of 
200  men,  the  unarmed  Parewanui  natives  had  sent 
to  Wanganui  for  their  guns,  and  it  was  only  by  a 
conciliatory  speech  at  the  midnight  runanga  that  Mr. 
Buller  had  succeeded  in  preventing  a  complete  break- 
up of  all  the  camps,  if  not  an  intertribal  war.  There 
seemed  to  be  white  men  behind  the  scenes  who  were 
not  friendly  to  the  sale,  and  the  debate  had  lasted 
from  dark  till  dawn. 

While  we  were  at  breakfast,  a  Ngatiapa  officer  of 
the  native  contingent  brought  down  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Featherston  from  Hunia  and  Hori  Kingi,  calling  us  to 
a  general  meeting  of  the  tribes  convened  for  noon,  to 
be  held  in  the  Ngatiapa  Pah.  The  letter  was  addressed, 
"Kia  te  Petatone  te  Huperintene" — "To  the  Feather- 
ston, the  Superintendent" — the  alterations  in  the  chief 
words  being  made  to  bring  them  within  the  grasp  of 
Maori  tongues,  which  cannot  sound  f's,  th's,  nor  sibi- 
lants of  any  kind.  The  absence  of  harsh  sounds,  and 
the  rule  which  makes  every  word  end  with  a  vowel, 
give  a  peculiar  softness  and  charm  to  the  Maroi  lan- 
guage. Sugar  becomes  huka ;  scissors,  hikiri ;  sheep, 
hipi;  and  so  with  all  English  words  adopted  into 
Maori.  The  rendering  of  the  Hebrew  names  of  the 


310  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Old  Testament  is  often  singular:  Genesis  becomes 
Kenehi ;  Exodus  is  altered  into  Ekoruhe  ;  Leviticus  is 
hardly  recognizable  in  Rewitikuha ;  Tiuteronomi  reads 
strangely  for  Deuteronomy,  and  Hohua  for  Joshua; 
Jacob,  Isaac,  Moses,  become  Hakopa,  Ihaka,  and 
Mohi ;  Egypt  is  softened  into  Ihipa,  Jordan  into  Ho- 
rarno.  The  list  of  the  nations  of  Canaan  seems  to  have 
been  a  stumbling-block  in  the  missionaries'  way.  The 
success  obtained  with  Girgashites  has  not  been  great ; 
it  stands  Kirekahi ;  Gaash  is  transmuted  into  Kaaha, 
and  Eleazar  into  Ereatara. 

When  we  drove  on  to  the  ground  all  was  at  a  dead- 
lock— the  flagstaff  bare,  the  chiefs  sleeping  in  their 
wahres,  and  the  common  folk  whiling  away  the  hours 
with  haka  songs.  Dr.  Featherston  retired  from  the 
ground,  declaring  that  till  the  Queen's  flag  was  hoisted 
he  would  attend  no  debate ;  but  he  permitted  us  to 
wander  in  among  the  Maories. 

We  were  introduced  to  Tamiana  te  Rauparaha,  chief 
of  the  Ngatitoa  branch  of  the  Ngatiraukawa,  and  son 
of  the  great  cannibal  chief  of  the  same  name,  who 
murdered  Captain  Wakefield.  Old  Rauparaha  it  was 
who  hired  an  English  ship  to  carry  him  and  his  nation 
to  the  South  Island,  where  they  ate  several  tribes,  boil- 
ing the  chiefs,  by  the  captain's  consent,  in  the  ship's 
coppers,  and  salting  down  for  future  use  the  common 
people.  When  the  captain,  on  return  to  port,  claimed 
his  price,  Rauparaha  told  him  to  go  about  his  business, 
or  he  should  be  salted  too.  The  captain  took  the  hint, 
but  he  did  not  escape  for  long,  as  he  was  finally  eaten 
by  the  Sandwich  Islanders  in  Hawaii. 

'  In  answer  to  our  request  for  a  dance-song,  Tamiana 
and  Horomona  Torerni  replied,  through  an  interpreter, 
that  "the  hands  of  the  singers  should  beat  time  as  fast 
as  the  pinions  of  the  wild  duck;"  and  in  a  minute  we 


PAREWANUI  PAH.  311 

were  in  the  middle  of  an  animated  crowd  of  boys  and 
women  collected  by  Porea,  the  buffoon. 

As  soon  as  the  singers  had  squatted  upon  the  grass, 
the  jester  began  to  run  slowly  up  and  down  between 
their  ranks  as  they  sat  swinging  backward  and  for- 
ward in  regular  time,  groaning  in  chorus,  and  looking 
upward  with  distorted  faces. 

In  a  second  dance,  a  girl  standing  out  upon  the 
grass  chanted  the  air — a  kind  of  capstan  song — and 
then  the  "dancers,"  who  were  seated  in  one  long  row, 
joined  in  chorus,  breathing  violently  in  perfect  time, 
half  forming  words,  but  not  notes,  swinging  from  side 
to  side  like  the  howling  dervishes,  and  using  frightful 
gestures.  This  strange  whisper-roaring  went  on  in- 
creasing in  rapidity  and  fierceness,  till  at  last  the 
singers  worked  themselves  into  a  frenzy,  in  which  they 
rolled  their  eyes,  stiffened  the  arms  and  legs,  clutched 
and  clawed  with  the  fingers,  and  snorted  like  mad- 
dened horses.  Stripping  off' their  clothes,  they  looked 
more  like  the  Maories  of  thirty  years  ago  than  those 
who  see  them  only  at  the  mission-stations  would  be- 
lieve. Other  song-dances,  in  which  the  singers  stood 
striking  their  heels  at  measured  intervals  upon  the 
earth,  were  taken  up  with  equal  vigor  by  the  boys  and 
women,  the  grown  men  in  their  dignity  keeping  them- 
selves aloof,  although  in  his  heart  every  Maori  loves 
mimetic  dance  and  song.  We  remarked  that  in  the 
"haka"  the  old  women  seemed  more  in  earnest  than 
the  young,  who  were  always  bursting  into  laughter, 
and  forgetting  words  and  time. 

The  savage  love  for  semitones  makes  Maori  music 
somewhat  wearisome  to  the  English  ear;  so  after  a 
time»we  began  to  walk  through  the  pahs  and  sketch 
the  Maories,  to  their  great  delight.  I  was  drawing 
the  grand  old  head  of  a  venerable  dame — Oriuhia  t£ 


312  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Aka — when  she  asked  to  see  what  I  was  about.  As 
soon  as  I  showed  her  the  sketch,  she  began  to  call  me 
names,  and  from  her  gestures  I  saw  that  the  insult  was 
in  the  omission  of  the  tattooing  on  her  chin.  When  I 
inserted  the  stripes  and  curves,  her  delight  was  such 
that  I  greatly  feared  she  would  have  embraced  me. 

Strolling  into  the  karaka  groves,  we  came  upon  a 
Maori  wooden  tomb,  of  which  the  front  was  carved 
with  figures  three  feet  high,  grotesque  and  obscene. 
Gigantic  eyes,  hands  bearing  clubs,  limbs  without 
bodies,  and  bodies  without  limbs,  were  figured  here 
and  there  among  more  perfect  carvings,  and  the  whole 
was  of  a  character  which  the  Maories  of  to-day  disown 
as  they  do  cannibalism,  wishing  to  have  these  horrid 
things  forgotten.  The  sudden  rise  of  the  Hau-Hau 
fanaticism  within  the  last  few  years  has  shown  us  that 
the  layer  of  civilization  by  which  the  old  Maori  habits 
are  overlaid  is  thin  indeed. 

The  flags  remained  down  all  day,  and  in  the  after- 
noon we  returned  to  the  coast  to  shoot  duck  and 
pukdko,  a  sort  of  moor-hen.  It  was  not  easy  work,  for 
the  birds  fell  in  the  flax  swamp,  and  the  giant  sword- 
like  leaves  of  the  Phormium  tenax  cut  our  hands  as  we 
pushed  our  way  through  its  dense  clumps  and  bushes, 
while  some  of  the  party  suffered  badly  from  the  sun: 
Maui,  the  Maories  say,  must  have  chained  him  up  too 
near  the  earth.  After  dark,  we  could  see  the  glare  of 
the  fires  in  the  karaka  groves,  where  the  Maories  were 
in  council,  and  a  government  surveyor  came  in  to 
report  that  he  had  met  the  dissentient  Wanganuis 
riding  fast  toward  the  hills. 

In  the  morning,  we  were  allowed  to  stay  upon  the 
coast  till  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  when  a  messenger^ame 
down  from  Mr.  Buller  to  call  us  to  the  pah :  the  coun- 
cil of  the  chiefs  had  again  sat  all  night — for  the  Mao- 


PAEEWANUI  PAH.  313 

ries  act  upon  their  proverb  that  the  eyes  of  great  chiefs 
should  know  no  rest — and  Hunia  had  carried  every- 
thing before  him  in  the  debate. 

As  soon  as  the  ring  was  formed,  Hunia  apologized 
for  the  pulling  down  of  the  Queen's  flag;  it  had  been 
done,  he  said,  as  a  sign  that  the  sale  was  broken  off, 
not  as  an  act  of  disrespect.  Having,  in  short,  had 
things  entirely  his  own  way,  he  was  disposed  to  be 
extremely  friendly  both  to  whites  and  Maories.  The 
sale,  he  said,  must  be  brought  about,  or  the  "world 
would  be  on  fire  with  an  intertribal  war.  "What  is  the 
good  of  the  mountain-land  ?  There  is  nothing  to  eat 
but  stones ;  granite  is  a  hard  but  not  a  strengthening 
food ;  and  women  and  land  are  the  ruin  of  men." 

After  congratulatory  speeches  from  other  chiefs, 
some  of  the  older  men  treated  us  to  histories  of  the 
deeds  that  had  been  wrought  upon  the  block  of  land. 
Some  of  their  speeches — notably  those  of  Aperahama 
and  Ihakara  —  were  largely  built  up  of  legendary 
poems ;  but  the  orators  quoted  the  poetry  as  such  only 
when  in  doubt  how  far  the  sentiments  were  those  of 
the  assembled  people :  when  they  were  backed  by  the 
hum  which  denotes  applause,  they  at  one  commenced 
with  singular  art  to  weave  the  poetry  into  that  which 
was  their  own. 

As  soon  as  the  speeches  were  over,  Hunia  and  Iha- 
kara marched  up  to  the  flagstaff  carrying  between 
them  the  deed-of-sale.  Putting  it  down  before  Dr. 
Featherston,  they  shook  hands  with  each  other  and 
with  him,  and  swore  that  for  the  future  there  should 
be  eternal  friendship  between  their  tribes.  The 
deed  was  then  signed  by  many  hundred  men  and 
women,  and  Dr.  Featherston  started  with  Captain  te 
Kepa,  of  the  native  contingent,  to  fetch  the  £25,000 

2? 


314  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

from  Wanganui  town,  the  Maories  firing  their  rifles 
into  the  air  as  a  salute. 

The  Superintendent  was  no  sooner  gone  than  a  kind 
of  solemn  grief  seemed  to  come  over  the  assembled 
people.  After  all,  they  were  selling  the  graves  of 
their  ancestors,  they  argued.  The  wife  of  Hamuera, 
seizing  her  husband's  greenstone  club,  ran  out  from 
the  ranks  of  the  women,  and  began  to  intone  an  im- 
promptu song,  which  was  echoed  by  the  women,  in  a 
pathetic  chorus-chant: 

"  The  sun  shines,  but  we  quit  our  land:  we  abandon  forever  its  forests, 
its  mountains,  its  groves,  its  lakes,  its  shores. 

All  its  fair  fisheries,  here,  under  the  bright  sun,  forever  we  re- 
nounce. 

It  is  a  lovely  day ;  fair  will  be  the  children  that  are  born  to-day  ;  but 
we  quit  our  land. 

In  some  parts  there  is  forest;  in  others,  the  ground  is  skimmed  over 
by  the  birds  in  their  flight. 

Upon  the  trees  there  is  fruit ;  in  the  streams,  fish ;  in  the  fields, 
potatoes  ;  fern-roots  in  the  bush  ;  but  we  quit  our  land." 

It  is  in  chorus-speeches  of  this  kind  that  David's 
psalms  must  have  been  recited  by  the  Jews ;  but  on 
this  occasion  there  was  a  good  deal  of  mere  acting  in 
the  grief,  for  the  tribes  had  never  occupied  the  land 
that  they  now  sold. 

The  next  day,  Dr.  Featherston  drove  into  camp  sur- 
rounded by  a  brilliant  cavalcade  of  Maori  cavalry, 
amid  much  yelling  and  firing  of  pieces  skyward. 
Hunia,  in  receiving  him,  declared  that  he  would  not 
have  the  money  paid  till  the  morrow,  as  the  sun  must 
shine  upon  the  transfer  of  the  lands.  It  would  take 
his  people  all  the  night,  he  said,  to  work  themselves 
up  to  the  right  pitch  for  a  war-dance;  so  he  sent  down 
a  strong  guard  to  watch  the  money-chests,  which  had 
been  conveyed  to  the  missionary  hut.  The  Ngatiapa 


PAEEWANUI  PAH.  315 

sentry  posted  inside  the  room  was  an  odd  cross  between 
savagery  and  civilization;  he  wore  the  cap  of  the  native 
contingent;  and  nothing  else  but  a  red  kilt.  He  was 
armed  with  a  short  Wilkinson  rifle,  for  which  he  had, 
however,  not  a  round  of  ammunition,  his  cartridges 
being  Enfield  and  his  piece  unloaded.  Barbarian  or 
not,  he  seemed  to  like  raw  gin,  with  which  some  Eng- 
lishman had  unlawfully  and  unfairly  tempted  him. 

In  the  morning,  the  money  was  handed  over  in  the 
runanga-house,  and  a  signet-ring  presented  to  Hunia 
by  Dr.  Featherston  in  pledge  of  peace,  and  memory  of 
the  sale;  but  owing  to  the  heat,  we  soon  adjourned  to 
the  karaka  grove,  where  Hunia  made  a  congratulatory 
and  somewhat  boastful  speech,  offering  his  friendship 
and  alliance  to  Dr.  Featherston. 

The  assembly  was  soon  dismissed,  and  the  chiefs 
withdrew  to  prepare  for  the  grandest  war-dance  that 
had  been  seen  for  years,  while  a  party  went  off  to  catch 
and  kill  the  oxen  that  were  to  be  "steamed"  whole, 
just  as  our  friends'  fathers  would  have  steamed  us. 

A  chief  was  detached  by  Hunia  to  guide  us  to  a  hill 
whence  we  commanded  the  whole  glade.  .N"o  sooner 
had  we  taken  our  seats  than  the  Ngatiraukawa  to  the 
number  of  a  hundred  fighting-men,  armed  with  spears 
and  led  by  a  dozen  women  bearing  clubs,  marched  out 
from  their  camp,  and  formed  in  column,  their  chiefs 
making  speeches  of  exhortation  from  the  ranks.  After 
a  pause,  we  heard  the  measured  groaning  of  a  distant 
haka,  and  looking  up  the  glade,  at  the  distance  of  a 
mile  saw  some  twoscore  Wanganui  warriors  jump- 
ing in  perfect  time,  now  to  one  side,  now  to  the  other, 
grasping  their  rifles  by  the  barrel,  and  raising  them  as 
one  man  each  time  they  jumped.  Presently,  bending 
one  knee,  but  stiffening  the  other  leg,  they  advanced, 
stepping  together  with  a  hopping  movement,  slapping 


316  GEEATEE    BEITAIN. 

their  hips  and  thighs,  and  shouting  from  the  palate, 
"Hough!  Hough!"  with  fearful  emphasis. 

A  shout  from  the  Ngatiraukawa  hailed  the  approach 
of  the  Ngatiapa,  who  deployed  from  the  woods  some 
two  hundred  strong,  all  armed  with  Enfield  rifles. 
They  united  with  the  Wangannis,  and  marched  slowly 
down  with  their  rifles  at  the  "  charge,"  steadily  singing 
war-songs.  When  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  op- 
posing ranks,  they  halted,  and  sent  in  their  challenge. 
The  Ngatiraukawa  and  Ngatiapa  heralds  passed  each 
other  in  silence,  and  each  delivered  his  message  to  the 
hostile  chief. 

We  could  see  that  the  allies  were  led  by  Hunia  in 
all  the  bravery  of  his  war-costume.  In  his  hair  he 
wore  a  heron  plume,  and  another  was  fastened  near 
the  muzzle  of  his  short  carbine ;  his  limbs  were  bare, 
but  about  his  shoulders  he  had  a  pure  white  scarf  of 
satin.  His  kilt  was  gauze-silk,  of  three  colors — pink, 
emerald,  and  cherry — arranged  in  such  a  way  as  to 
show  as  much  of  the  green  as  of  the  two  other  colors. 
The  contrast,  which  upon  a  white  skin  would  have 
been  glaring  in  its  ugliness,  was  perfect  when  backed 
by  the  nut-brown  of  Hunia's  chest  and  legs.  As  he 
ran  before  his  tribe,  he  was  the  ideal  savage. 

The  instant  that  the  heralds  had  returned,  a  charge 
took  place,  the  forces  passing  through  each  other's 
ranks  as  they  do  upon  the  stage,  but  with  frightful 
yells.  After  this  they  formed  two  deep,  in  three  com- 
panies, and  danced  the  "  musket-exercise  war-dance  " 
in  wonderful  time,  the  women  leading,  thrusting  out 
their  tongues,  and  shaking  their  long  pendant  breasts. 
Among  them  was  Hamudra's  wife,  standing  drawn  up 
to  her  full  height,  her  limbs  stiffened,  her  head  thrown 
back,  her  mouth  wide  open  and  tongue  protruding, 
her  eyes  rolled  so  as  to  show  the  white,  and  her  arms 


PAEEWANUI  PAH.  317 

stretched  out  in  front  of  her,  as  she  slowly  chanted. 
The  illusion  was  perfect:  she  became  for  the  time  a 
mad  prophetess ;  yet  all  the  frenzy  was  assumed  at  a 
whim,  to  be  cast  aside  in  half  an  hour.  The  shouts 
were  of  the  same  under-breath  kind  as  in  the  haka, 
but  they  were  aided  by  the  sounds  of  horns  and  conch- 
shells,  and  from  the  number  of  men  engaged  the  noise 
was  this  time  terrible.  After  much  fierce  singing  the 
musket-dance  was  repeated,  with  furious  leaps  and 
gestures,  till  the  men  became  utterly  exhausted,  when 
the  review  was  closed  by  a  general  discharge  of  rifles. 
Running  with  nimble  feet,  the  dancers  were  soon  back 
within  their  pahs,  and  the  feast,  beginning  now,  was, 
like  a  Russian  banquet,  prolonged  till  morning. 

It  is  not  hard  to  understand  the  conduct  of  Lord 
Durham's  settlers,  who  landed  here  in  1837.  The 
friendly  natives  received  the  party  with  a  war-dance, 
which  had  upon  them  such  an  effect  that  they  imme- 
diately took  ship  for  Australia,  where  they  remained. 

The  next  day,  when  we  called  on  Governor  Hunia 
at  his  wahre  to  bid  him  farewell,  before  our  departure 
for  the  capital,  he  made  two  speeches  to  us,  which  are 
worth  recording  as  specimens  of  Maori  oratory.  Speak- 
ing through  Mr.  Buller,  who  had  been  kind  enough  to 
escort  us  to  the  Ngatiapa's  wahre,  Hunia  said  : 

"Hail,  guests  !  You  have  just  now  seen  the  settle- 
ment of  a  great  dispute — the  greatest  of  modern  time. 

"This  was  a  weighty  trouble — a  grave  difliculty. 

"  Many  Pakehas  have  tried  to  settle  it — in  vain.  For 
Petatone  was  it  reserved  to  end  it.  I  have  said  that 
great  is  our  gratitude  to  Petatone. 

"If  Petatone  hath  need  of  me  in  the  future,  I  shall 
be  there.  If  he  climbs  the  lofty  tree,  I  will  climb  it 
with  him.  If  he  scales  high  cliffs,  I  will  scale  them 

27* 


318  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

too.  If  Petatone  needeth  help,  he  shall  have  it ;  and 
where  he  leads,  there  will  I  follow. 

"Such  are  the  words  of  Hunia." 

To  this  speech  one  of  us  replied,  explaining  our 
position  as  guests  from  Britain. 

Hunia  then  began  again  to  speak: 

"  O  my  guests,  a  few  days  since  when  asked  for  a 
war-dance,  I  refused.  I  refused  because  my  people 
were  sad  at  heart. 

"  We  were  loath  to  refuse  our  guests,  but  the  tribes 
were  grieved ;  the  peeple  were  sorrowful  at  heart. 

"  To-day  we  are  happy,  and  the  war-dance  has  taken 
place. 

"  O  my  guests,  when  ye  return  to  our  great  Queen, 
tell  her  that  we  will  fight  for  her  again  as  we  have 
fought  before. 

"  She  is  our  Queen  as  well  as  your  Queen — Queen 
of  Maories  and  Queen  of  Pak^ha. 

"  Should  wars  arise,  we  will  take  up  our  rifles,  and 
march  whithersoever  she  shall  direct. 

"  You  have  heard  of  the  King  movement.  I  was  a 
Kingite ;  but  that  did  not  prevent  me  fighting  for  the 
Queen — I  and  my  chiefs. 

"  My  cousin,  Wiremu,  went  to  England,  and  saw 
our  Queen.  He  returned.  .  .  . 

"  When  you  landed  in  this  island,  he  was  already 
dead.  .  .  . 

"  He  died  fighting  for  our  Queen. 

"As  he  died,  we  will  die,  if  need  be — I  and  all  my 
chiefs.  This  do  you  tell  our  Queen. 

"I  have  said." 

This  passage,  spoken  as  Hunia  spoke  it,  was  one  of 
noble  eloquence  and  singular  rhetoric  art.  The  few 
first  words  about  Wiremu  were  spoken  in  a  half  indif- 
ferent way;  but  there  was  a  long  pause  before  and 


THE   MAORIES.  319 

after  the  statement  that  he  was  dead,  and  a  sinking  of 
the  voice  when  he  related  how  Wiremu  had  died,  fol- 
lowed by  a  burst  of  sudden  fire  in  the  "As  he  died, 
we  will  die — I  and  all  my  chiefs." 

After  a  minute  or  two,  Hunia  resumed : 

"  This  is  another  word. 

"We  are  all  of  us  glad  to  see  you. 

"  When  we  wrote  to  Petatone,  we  asked  him  that 
he  would  bring  with  him  Pakehas  from  England  and 
from  Australia — Pakehas  from  all  parts  of  the  Queen's 
broad  lands. 

"  Pakehas  who  should  return  to  tell  the  Queen  that 
the  Ngatiapa  are  her  liegemen. 

"We  are  much  rejoiced  that  you  are  here.  May 
your  heart  rest  here  among  us;  but  if  you  go  once 
more  to  your  English  home,  tell  the  people  that  we  are 
Petatone's  faithful  subjects  and  the  Queen's. 

"I  have  said." 

After  pledging  Hunia  in  a  cup  of  wine,  we  returned 
to  our  temporary  home. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    MAORIES. 

PARTING  with  my  companions  (who  were  going  north- 
ward) in  order  that  I  might  return  to  Wellington, 
and  thence  take  ship  to  Taranaki,  I  started  at  day- 
break on  a  lovely  morning  to  walk  by  the  sea- shore  to 
Otaki.  As  I  left  the  bank  of  the  Manawatu  River  for 
the  sands,  Mount  Egmont  near  Taranaki,  and  Mounts 
Ruapehu  and  Tongariro,  in  the  center  of  the  island, 


320  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

hung  their  great  snow  domes  in  the  soft  blue  of  the 
sky  behind  me?  and  seemed  to  have  parted  from  their 
bases. 

I  soon  passed  through  the  flax-swamp  where  we  for 
days  had  shot  the  pukeko,  and  coming  out  upon  the 
wet  sands,  which  here  are  glittering  and  full  of  the 
Taranaki  steel,  I  took  off  boots  and  socks,  and  trudged 
the  whole  distance  barefoot,  regardless  of  the  morrow. 
It  was  hard  to  walk  without  crunching  with  the  heel 
shells  which  would  be  thought  rare  at  home,  and  here 
and  there  charming  little  tern  and  other  tiny  sea-fowl 
flew  at  me,  and  all  but  pecked  my  eyes  out  for  coming 
near  their  nests. 

During  the  day,  I  forded  two  large  rivers  and  small 
streams  innumerable,  and  swam  the  Ohau,  where  Dr. 
Featherston  last  week  lost  his  dog-cart  in  the  quick- 
sands, but  I  managed  to  reach  Otaki  before  sunset,  in 
time  to  revel  in  a  typical  New  Zealand  view.  The 
foreground  was  composed  of  ancient  sand-hills,  covered 
with  the  native  flax,  with  the  deliciously-scented 
Manuka  ti-tree,  brilliant  in  white  flower,  and  with 
giant  fern,  tuft-grass,  and  tussac.  Farther  inland  was 
the  bush,  evergreen,  bunchlike  in  its  foliage,  and  so 
overladen  with  parasitic  vegetation,  that  the  true  leaves 
were  hidden  by  usurpers,  or  crushed  to  death  in  the 
folds  of  snakelike  creepers.  The  view  was  bounded 
by  bush-clad  mountains,  rosy  with  the  sunset  tints. 

Otaki  is  Archdeacon  Hadfield's  church-settlement 
of  Christian  Maories;  but  of  late  there  have  been  signs 
of  wavering  in  the  tribes,  and  I  found  Major  Edwardes, 
who  had  been  with  us  at  Parewanui,  engaged  in  hold- 
ing, for  the  government,  a  runanga  of  Hau-Haus,  or 
Antichristian  Maories,  in  the  Otaki  Pah.  Some  of 
these  fellows  had  lately  held  a  meeting,  and  had  them- 
selves rebaptized,  but  this  time  out  of  instead  of  into 


THE   MAOKIE3.  321 

the  church.  They  received  fresh  names,  and  are  said 
to  have  politely  invited  the  archdeacon  to  perform  the 
ceremony. 

Maori  Church  of  Englandism  has  proved  a  failure. 
A  dozen  native  clergymen  are,  it  is  true,  supported  in 
comfort  by  their  countrymen,  but  the  tribes  would 
support  a  hundred  such,  if  necessary,  rather  than  give 
up  the  fertile  "reservations,"  such  as  that  of  Otaki, 
which  their  pretended  Christianity  has  secured.  There 
is  much  in  the  Maori  that  is  tiger-like,  and  it  is  in  the 
blood,  not  to  be  drawn  out  of  it  by  a  fewyears  of  play- 
ing at  Christianity. 

The  labors  of  the  missionaries  have  been  great,  their 
earnestness  and  devotion  unsurpassed.  Up  to  the  day 
of  the  outbreak  of  Hau-Hauism,  their  influence  with 
the  natives  was  thought  to  be  enormous.  The  entire 
Maori  race  had  been  baptized,  thousands  of  natives 
had  attended  the  schools,  hundreds  had  become  com- 
municants and  catechists.  In  a  day  the  number  of 
native  Christians  was  reduced  from  thirty  thousand  to 
some  hundreds.  Right  and  left  the  tribes  flocked  to 
the  bush,  deserting  mission  stations,  villages,  herds, 
and  fields.  Those  few  who  dared  not  go  were  there  in 
spirit ;  all  sympathized,  if  not  with  the  Hau-Hau  move- 
ment, at  least  with  Kingism.  The  archdeacon  and 
his  brethren  of  the  holy  calling  were  at  their  wits' 
ends.  Not  only  did  Christianity  disappear :  civilization 
itself  accompanied  religion  in  her  flight,  and  habits  of 
bloodshed  and  barbarity,  unknown  since  the  nominal 
renunciation  of  idolatry,  in  a  day  returned.  The  fall 
was  terrible,  but  it  went  to  show  that  the  apparent 
success  had  been  fictitious.  The  natives  had  built  mills 
and  owned  ships;  they  had  learnt  husbandry  and  cat- 
tle-breeding; they  had  invested  money,  and  put  acre 
to  acre,  and  house  to  house;  but  their  moral  could 


322  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

hardly  have  kept  pace  with  their  material,  or  even  with 
their  mental  gains. 

A  magistrate,  who  knows  the  Maories  well,  told  me 
that  their  Christianity  is  only  on  the  surface.  He  one 
day  asked  Matene  te  Whiwhi,  a  Ngatiraukawa  chief, 
"Which  would  you  soonest  eat,  Matene — pork,  beef, 
or  Ngatiapa?"  Matene  answered,  with  a  turn  up  of 
his  eyes,  "Ah  !  I'm  a  Christian  !"  "  Fever  mind  that 
to  me,  you  know,"  said  the  Englishman.  "  The  flesh 
of  the  Ngatiapa  is  sweet,"  said  Matene,  with  a  smack 
of  the  lips  that  was  distinctly  audible.  The  settlers 
tell  you  that  when  the  Maories  go  to  war,  they  use  up 
their  Bibles  for  gun-wadding,  and  then  come  on  the 
missionaries  for  a  fresh  supply. 

The  Polynesians,  when  Christianity  is  first  presented 
to  them,  embrace  it  with  excitement  and  enthusiasm ; 
the  u  new  religion  "  spreads  like  wildfire  ;  the  success 
of  the  teachers  is  amazing.  A  few  years,  however, 
show  a  terrible  change.  The  natives  find  that  all  white 
men  are  not  missionaries ;  that  if  one  set  of  English- 
men deplore  their  licentiousness,  there  are  others  to 
back  them  in  it;  that  Christianity  requires  self-re- 
straint. As  soon  as  the  first  flare  of  the  new  religion 
is  over  it  commences  to  decline,  and  in  some  cases  it 
expires.  The  story  of  Christianity  in  Hawaii,  in  Ota- 
heite,  and  in  New  Zealand,  has  been  much  the  same : 
among  the  Tahitians  it  was  crushed  by  the  relapse  of 
the  converts  into  extreme  licentiousness;  among  the 
Maories  it  was  put  down  by  the  sudden  rise  of  the 
Hau-Hau  fanaticism.  A  return  to  a  better  state  of 
things  has  in  each  case  followed,  but  the  missionaries 
work  now  in  a  depressed  and  saddened  way,  which 
contrasts  sternly  with  the  exultation  that  inspired  them 
before  the  fresh  outbreak  of  the  demon  which  they 
believed  they  had  exorcised.  They  reluctantly  admit 


THE   MAORIES.  323 

that  the  Polynesians  are  fickle  as  well  as  gross ;  not 
only  licentious,  but  untrustworthy.  There  is,  they 
will  tell  you,  no  country  where  it  is  so  easy  to  plant  or 
so  hard  to  maintain  Christianity. 

The  Maori  religion  is  that  of  all  the  Polynesians — a 
vague  polytheism,  which  in  their  poems  seems  now 
and  then  to  approach  to  pantheism.  The  forest  glades, 
the  mountain  rocks,  the  stormy  shores,  all  swarm  with 
fairy  singers,  and  with  throngs  of  gnomes  and  elves. 
The  happy  laughing  islanders  have  a  heaven,  but  no 
hell  in  their  mythology;  of  "sin"  they  have  no  con- 
ception. Hau-IIauism  is  not  a  Polynesian  creed,  but 
a  political  and  religious  system  based  upon  the  earlier 
books  of  the  Old  Testament;  even  the  cannibalism 
which  was  added  was  not  of  the  Maori  kind.  The 
Indians  of  Chili  ate  human  flesh  for  pleasure  and  va- 
riety ;  those  of  Virginia  were  cannibals  only  on  state 
occasions,  or  in  religious  ceremonials;  but  the  Maories 
seem  originally  to  have  been  driven  to  man-eating  by 
sheer  want  of  food.  Since  Cook  left  pigs  upon  the 
islands,  the  excuse  has  been  wanting,  and  the  practice 
has  consequently  ceased.  As  revived  by  the  Hau- 
Haus,  the  man-eating  was  of  a  ceremonial  nature,  and, 
like  the  whole  of  the  observances  of  the  Hau-Hau 
fanaticism,  an  inroad  upon  ancient  Maori  customs. 

There  is  one  great  difference  which  severs  the  Maories 
from  the  other  Polynesians.  In  New  Zealand  caste  is 
unknown;  every  Maori  is  a  gentleman  or  a  slave. 
Chiefs  are  elected  by  the  popular  voice,  not,  indeed, 
by  a  show  of  hands,  but  by  a  sort  of  general  agreement 
of  the  tribe ;  but  the  chief  is  a  political,  not  a  social 
superior.  In  the  windy  climate  of  New  Zealand  men 
can  push  themselves  to  the  front  too  surely  by  their 
energy  and  toil,  to  remain  socially  in  an  inferior  class. 
Caste  is  impossible  where  the  climate  necessitates  ac- 


324  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

tivity  and  work.  The  Maories,  too,  we  should  remem- 
ber, are  an  immigrant  race ;  probably  no  high-caste 
men  came  with  them — all  started  from  equal  rank. 

Like  the  Tongans,  the  Maories  pay  great  reverence 
to  their  well-born  women  ;  slave  women  are  of  no  ac- 
count. The  Friendly  Islanders  exclude  both  man  and 
woman  slave  from  the  Future  Life ;  but  the  Maori 
Rangatira  not  only  admits  his  followers  to  heaven,  but 
his  wife  to  council.  A  Maori  chief  is  as  obedient  to 
the  warlike  biddings,  and  as  grateful  for  the  praising 
glance  or  smile  of  his  betrothed,  as  a  planter-cavalier 
of  Carolina,  or  a  Cretan  volunteer;  and  even  the  ladies 
of  New  Orleans  cannot  have  gone  further  than  the 
wives  of  Hunia  and  Ihakara  in  spurring  on  the  men  to 
•war.  The  Maori  Andromaches  outdo  their  European 
sisters,  for  they  themselves  proceed  to  battle,  and  ani- 
mate their  Hectors  by  songs  and  shouts.  Even  the 
scepter  of  tribal  rule — the  greenstone  wim',  or  royal 
club  —  is  often  intrusted  to  them  by  their  warrior 
husbands,  and  used  to  lead  the  war-dance  or  the 
charge. 

The  delicacy  of  treatment  shown  by  the  Maories 
toward  their  women  may  go  far  to  account  for  the  ab- 
sence of  contempt  for  the  native  race  among  the  Eng- 
lish population.  An  Englishman's  respect  for  the  sex 
is  terribly  shocked  when  he  sees  a  woman  staggering 
under  the  weight  of  the  wigwam  and  the  children  of  a 
"  brave,"  who  stalks  behind  her  through  the  streets  of 
Austin,  carrying  his  rifles  and  his  pistols,  but  not 
another  ounce,  unless  in  the  shape  of  a  thong  with 
which  to  hasten  the  squaw's  steps.  What  wonder  if 
the  men  who  sit  by  smoking  while  their  wives  totter 
under  basketsful  of  mould  on  the  boulevard  works  at 
Delhi  are  called  lazy  scoundrels  by  the  press  of  the 
Northwest,  or  if  the  Shoshones,  who  eat  the  bread  of 


THE   MAORIES.  325 

idleness  themselves,  and  hire  out  their  wives  to  the 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  are  looked  upon  as  worse 
than  dogs  in  Nevada,  where  the  thing  is  done?  It  is 
the  New  Zealand  native's  treatment  of  his  wife  that 
makes  it  possible  for  an  honest  Englishman  to  respect 
or  love  an  honest  Maori. 

In  general,  the  newspaper  editors  and  idle  talkers  of 
the  frontier  districts  of  a  colony  in  savage  lands  speak 
wi|h  mingled  ridicule  and  contempt  of  the  men  with 
whom  they  daily  struggle ;  at  best,  they  see  in  them 
no  virtue  but  ferocious  bravery.  The  Kansas  and 
Colorado  papers  call  Indians  "fiends,"  "  devils,"  or 
dismiss  them  laughingly  in  peaceful  times  as  "  bucks," 
whose  lives  are  worth,  perhaps,  a  buffalo's,  but  who 
are  worthy  of  notice  only  as  potential  murderers  or 
thieves.  Such,  too,  is  the  tone  of  the  Australian  press 
concerning  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Queensland 
or  Tasmania.  Far  otherwise  do  the  New  Zealand 
papers  speak  of  the  Maori  warriors.  They  may  some- 
times call  them  grasping,  overreaching  traders,  or  un- 
derrate their  capability  of  receiving  civilization  of  a 
European  kind,  but  never  do  they  affect  to  think  them 
less  than  men,  or  to  advocate  the  employment  toward 
them  of  measures  which  would  be  repressed  as  infamous 
if  applied  to  brutes.  We  should,  I  think,  see  in  this 
peculiarity  of  conduct,  not  evidence  of  the  existence  in 
New  Zealand  of  a  spirit  more  catholic  and  tolerant 
toward  savage  neighbors  than  that  which  the  English 
race  displays  in  Australia  or  America,  but  rather  a 
tribute  to  the  superiority  in  virtue,  intelligence,  and 
nobility  of  mind  possessed  by  the  Maori  over  the  Ked 
Indian  or  the  Australian  Black. 

It  is  not  only  in  their  treatment  of  their  women  that 
the  Maories  show  their  chivalry.  One  of  the  most 
noble  traits  of  this  great  people  is  their  habit  of  "pro- 

28 


326  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

claiming"  the  districts  in  which  lies  the  cause  of  war 
as  the  sole  fighting-ground,  and  never  touching  their 
enemies,  however  defenseless,  when  found  elsewhere. 
European  nations  might  take  a  lesson  from  New  Zea- 
land Maories  in  this  and  other  points. 

The  Maories  are  apt  at  learning,  merry,  and,  unlike 
other  Polynesians,  trustworthy,  but  also,  unlike  them, 
mercenary.  At  the  time  of  the  Manawatu  sale,  old 
Aperahama  used  to  write  to  Dr.  Featherston  alrnpst 
every  day:  "O  Petatone,  let  the  price  of  the  block  be 
£9,999,999  19s.  9<i,"  the  mysteries  of  eleven  pence  three 
farthings  being  far  beyond  his  comprehension.  The 
Maories  have,  too,  a  royal  magnificence  in  their  ideas 
of  gifts  and  grants — witness  te  Heke's  bid  of  100,000 
acres  of  land  for  Governor  Fitzroy's  head,  in  answer 
to  the  offer,  by  the  governor,  of  a  small  price  for  his. 

The  praises  of  the  Maories  have  been  sung  by  so 
many  writers,  and  in  so  many  keys,  that  it  is  necessary 
to  keep  it  distinctly  before  us  that  they  are  mere  sav- 
ages, though  brave,  shrewd  men.  There  is  an  Eastern 
civilization — that  of  China  and  Hindostan — distinct 
from  that  of  Europe,  and  ancient  beyond  all  count ;  in 
this  the  Maories  have  no  share.  No  true  Hindoo,  no 
Arab,  no  Chinaman,  has  suffered  change  in  one  tittle 
of  his  dress  or  manners  from  contact  with  the  Western 
races;  of  this  essential  conservatism  there  is  in  the 
New  Zealand  savage  not  a  trace.  William  Thompson, 
the  Maori  "  king-maker,''  used  to  dress  as  any  English- 
man ;  Maories  on  board  our  ships  wear  the  uniform  of 
the  able-bodied  seamen;  Governor  Hunia  has  ridden 
as  a  gentleman-rider  in  a  steeple-chase,  equipped  in 
jockey  dress. 

Savages  though  they  be,  in  irregular  warfare  we  are 
not  their  match.  At  the  end  of  1865,  we  had  of  regu- 
lars and  militia  seventeen  thousand  men  under  arms 


THE   MAOBIES.  327 

in  the  North  Island  of  New  Zealand,  including  no  less 
than  twelve  regiments  of  the  line  at  their  "  war 
strength,"  and  yet  our  generals  were  despondent  as  to 
their  chance  of  finally  defeating  the  warriors  of  a  people 
which  —  men,  women,  and  children — numbered  but 
thirty  thousand  souls. 

Men  have  sought  far  and  wide  for  the  reasons  which 
led  to  our  defeats  in  the  New  Zealand  wars.  We  were 
defeated  by  the  Maories,  as  the  Austrians  by  the 
Prussians,  and  the  Fretfch  by  the  English  in  old  times 
— because  the  victors  were  the  better  men.  Not  the 
braver  men,  when  both  sides  were  brave  alike ;  not 
the  stronger ;  not,  perhaps,  taking  the  average  of  our 
officers  and  men,  the  more  intelligent;  but  capable  of 
quicker  movement,  able  to  subsist  on  less,  more  crafty, 
more  skilled  in  the  thousand  tactics  of  the  bush. 
Aided  by  their  women,  who,  when  need  was,  them- 
selves would  lead  the  charge,  and  who  at  all  times  dug 
their  fern-root  and  caught  their  fish ;  marching  where 
our  regiments  could  not  follow,  they  had,  as  have  the 
Indians  in  America,  the  choice  of  time  and  place  for 
their  attacks,  and  while  we  were  crawling  about  our 
military  roads  upon  the  coast,  incapable  of  traversing 
a  mile  of  bush,  the  Maories  moved  securely  and  secretly 
from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  island.  Arms  they  had, 
ammunition  they  could  steal,  and  blockade  was  useless 
with  enemies  who  live  on  fern-root.  When  they  found 
that  we  burnt  their  pahs,  they  ceased  to  build  them; 
that  was  all.  When  we  brought  up  howitzers,  they 
went  where  no  howitzers  could  follow.  It  should  not 
be  hard  even  for  our  pride  to  allow  that  such  enemies 
were,  man  for  man,  in  their  own  lands  our  betters. 

All  nations  fond  of  horses,  it  has  been  said,  flourish 
and  succeed.  The  Maories  love  horses  and  ride  well. 
All  races  that  delight  in  sea  are  equally  certain  to  pros- 


328  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

per,  empirical  philosophers  will  tell  us.  The  Maories 
own  ships  by  the  score,  and  serve  as  sailors  whenever 
they  get  a  chance:  as  deep-sea  fishermen  they  have  no 
equals.  Their  fondness  for  draughts  shows  mathe- 
matical capacity ;  in  truthfulness  they  possess  the  first 
of  virtues.  They  are  shrewd,  thrifty ;  devoted  friends, 
brave  men.  With  all  this,  they  die. 

"  Can  you  stay  the  surf  which  beats  on  Wanganui 
shore  ?"  say  the  Maories  of  our  progress;  and,  of  them- 
selves :  "  We  are  gone — like  the  raoa." 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   TWO    FLIES. 

"  As  the  Pakeha  fly  has  driven  out  the  Maori  fly; 
As  the  Pakeha  grass  has  killed  the  Maori  grass  ; 
As  the  Pakeha  rat  has  slain  the  Maori  rat ; 
As  the  Pakeha  clover  has  starved  the  Maori  fern, 
So  will  the  Pakeha  destroy  the  Maori." 

THESE  are  the  mournful  words  of  a  well-known 
Maori  song. 

That  the  English  daisy,  the  white  clover,  the  common 
thistle,  the  chamomile,  the  oat,  should  make  their  way 
rapidly  in  New  Zealand,  and  put  down  the  native 
plants,  is  in  no  way  strange.  If  the  Maori  grasses 
that  have  till  lately  held  undisturbed  possession  of  the 
New  Zealand  soil,  require  for  their  nourishment  the 
substances  A,  B,  and  C,  while  the  English  clover 
needs  A,  B,  and  D  ;  from  the  nature  of  things  A  and 
B  will  be  the  coarser  earths  or  salts,  existing  in  larger 


THE    TWO  FLIES.  329 

quantities,  not  easily  losing  vigor  and  nourishing  force, 
and  recruiting  their  energies  from  the  decay  of  the 
very  plant  that  feeds  on  them ;  but  C  and  D  will  be  the 
more  ethereal,  the  more  easily  destroyed  or  wasted 
substances.  The  Maori  grass,  having  sucked  nearly 
the  whole  of  C  from  the  soil,  is  in  a  weakly  state,  when 
in  comes  the  English  plant,  and,  finding  an  abundant 
store  of  untouched  D,  thrives  accordingly,  and  crushes 
down  the  Maori. 

The  positions  of  flies  and  grasses,  of  plants  and  in- 
sects, are,  however,  not  the  same.  Adapted  by  nature 
to  the  infinite  variety  of  soils  and  climates,  there  are 
an  infinite  number  of  different  plants  and  animals; 
but  whereas  the  plant  depends  upon  both  soil  and 
climate,  the  animal  depends  chiefly  upon  climate,  and 
little  upon  soil — except  so  far  as  his  home  or  his  food 
themselves  depend  on  soil.  Now,  while  soil  wears  out, 
climate  does  not.  The  climate  in  the  long  run  remains 
the  same,  but  certain  apparently  trifling  constituents 
of  the  soil  will  wholly  disappear.  The  result  of  this 
is,  that  while  pigs  may  continue  to  thrive  in  New  Zea- 
land forever  and  a  day,  Dutch  clover  (without  manure) 
will  only  last  a  given  and  calculable  time. 

The  case  of  the  flies  is  plain  enough.  The  Maori 
and  the  English  fly  live  on  the  same  food,  and  require 
about  the  same  amount  of  warmth  and  moisture:  the 
one  which  is  best  fitted  to  the  common  conditions  will 
gain  the  day,  and  drive  out  the  other.  The  English 
fly  has  had  to  contend  not  only  against  other  English 
flies,  but  against  every  fly  of  temperate  climates :  we 
having  traded  with  every  land,  and  brought  the  flies 
of  every  clime  to  England.  The  English  fly  is  the 
best  possible  fly  of  the  whole  world,  and  will  naturally 
beat  down  and  exterminate,  or  else  starve  out,  the 
merely  provincial  Maori  fly.  If  a  great  singer — to  find 

28* 


330  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

whom  for  the  London  stage  the  world  has  been  ran- 
sacked— should  be  led  by  the  foible  of  the  moment  to 
sing  for  gain  in  an  unknown  village,  where  on  the 
same  night  a  rustic  tenor  was  attempting  to  sing  his 
best,  the  London  tenor  would  send  'the  provincial  sup- 
perless  to  bed.  So  it  is  with  the  English  and  Maori  fly. 

Natural  selection  is  being  conducted  by  nature  in 
New  Zealand  on  a  grander  scale  than  any  we  have 
contemplated,  for  the  object  of  it  here  is  man.  In 
America,  in  Australia,  the  white  man  shoots  or  poisons 
his  red  or  black  fellow,  and  exterminates  him  through 
the  workings  of  superior  knowledge ;  but  in  New  Zea- 
land it  is  peacefully,  and  without  extraordinary  advant- 
ages, that  the  Pak£ha  beats  his  Maori  brother. 

That  which  is  true  of  our  animal  and  vegetable  pro- 
ductions is  true  also  of  our  man.  The  English  fly, 
grass,  and  man,  they  and  their  progenitors  before  them, 
have  had  to  fight  for  life  against  their  fellows.  The 
Englishman,  bringing  into  his  country  from  the  parts 
to  which  he  trades  all  manner  of  men,  of  grass  seeds, 
and  of  insect  germs,  has  filled  his  land  with  every  kind 
of  living  thing  to  which  his  soil  or  climate  will  afford 
support.  Both  old  inhabitants  and  interlopers  have  to 
maintain  a  struggle  which  at  once  crushes  and  starves 
out  of  life  every  weakly  plant,  man,  or  insect,  and  for- 
tifies the  race  by  continual  bufferings.  The  plants  of 
civilized  man  are  generaHy  those  which  will  grow  best 
in  the  greatest  variety  of  soils  and  climates;  but  in 
any  case,  the  English  fauna  and  flora  are  peculiarly 
fitted  to  succeed  at  our  antipodes,  because  the  climates 
of  Great  Britain  and  New  Zealand  are  almost  the  same, 
and  our  men,  flies,  and  plants — the  "pick"  of  the 
whole  world  —  have  not  even  to  encounter  the  diffi- 
culties of  acclimatization  in  their  struggle  against 
the  weaker  growths  indigenous  to  the  soil. 


THE    TWO  FLIES.  331 

Nature's  work  in  New  Zealand  is  not  the  same  as 
that  which  she  is  quickly  doing  in  North  America,  in 
Tasmania,  in  Queensland.  It  is  not  merely  that  a 
hunting  and  fighting  people  is  being  replaced  by  an 
agricultural  and  pastoral  people,  and  must  farm  or 
die  :  the  Maori  does  farm ;  Maori  chiefs  own  villages, 
build  houses,  which  they  let  to  European  settlers ;  we 
have  here  Maori  sheep-farmers,  Maori  ship-owners, 
Maori  mechanics,  Maori  soldiers,  Maori  rough-riders, 
Maori  sailors,  and  even  Maori  traders.  There  is  no- 
thing which  the  average  Englishman  can  do  which  the 
average  Maori  cannot  be  taught  to  do  as  cheaply  and 
as  well.  Nevertheless,  the  race  dies  out.  The  Red 
Indian  dies  because  he  cannot  farm ;  the  Maori  farms, 
and  dies. 

There  are  certain  special  features  about  this  advance 
of  the  birds,  beasts,  and  men  of  Western  civilization. 
When  the  first  white  man  landed  in  New  Zealand,  all 
the  native,  quadrupeds  save  one,  and  nearly  all  the 
birds  and  river-fishes,  were  extinct,  though  we  have 
their  bones,  and  traditions  of  their  existence.  The 
Maories  themselves  were  dying  out.  The  moa  and 
dinoris  were  both  gone ;  there  were  few  insects,  and 
no  reptiles.  "The  birds  die  because  the  Maories,  their 
companions,  die,"  is  the  native  saying.  Yet  the  climate 
is  singularly  good,  and  food  for  beast  and  bird  so  plen- 
tiful that  Captain  Cook's  pigs  have  planted  colonies  of 
"wild  boars"  in  every  part  of  the  islands,  and  English 
pheasants  have  no  sooner  been  imported  than  they 
have  commenced  to  swarm  in  every  jungle.  Even  the 
Pakeha  flea  has  come  over  in  the  ships,  and  wonder- 
fully has  he  thriven. 

The  terrible  want  of  food  for  men  that  formerly  char- 
acterized New  Zealand  has  had  its  effects  upon  the 
habits  of  the  Maori  race.  Australia  has  no  native 


332  GEE  ATE  R  BRITAIN. 

fruit  trees  worthy  cultivation,  although  in  the  whole 
world  there  is  no  such  climate  and  soil  for  fruits;  still, 
Australia  has  kangaroos  and  other  quadrupeds.  The 
Ladrones  were  destitute  of  quadrupeds,  and  of  birds, 
except  the  turtle-dove ;  but  in  the  warm  damp  climate 
fruits  grew,  sufficient  to  support  in  comfort  a  dense 
population.  In  New  Zealand  the  windy  cold  of  the 
winters  causes  a  need  for  something  of  a  tougher  fiber 
than  the  banana  or  the  fern-root.  There  being  no 
native  beasts,  the  want  was  supplied  by  human  flesh, 
and  war,  furnishing  at  once  food  and  the  excitement 
which  the  chase  supplies  to  peoples  that  have  animals 
to  hunt,  became  the  occupation  of  the  Maories.  Hence 
in  some  degree  the  depopulation  of  the  land;  but 
other  causes  exist,  by  the  side  of  which  cannibalism  is 
as  nothing. 

The  British  government  has  been  less  guilty  than 
is  commonly  believed  as  regards  the  destruction  of  the 
Maories.  Since  the  original  misdeed  of  the  annexation 
of  the  isles,  we  have  done  the  Maories  no  serious 
wrong.  We  recognized  the  claim  of  a  handful  of  na- 
tives to  the  soil  of  a  country  as  large  as  Great  Britain, 
of  not  one-hundredth  part  of  which  had  they  ever 
made  the  smallest  use ;  and,  disregarding  the  fact  that 
our  occupation  of  the  coast  was  the  very  event  that 
gave  the  land  its  value,  we  have  insisted  on  buying 
every  acre  from  the  tribe.  Allowing  title  by  conquest 
to  the  Ngatiraiikawa,  as  I  saw  at  Parewanui  Pah,  we 
refuse  to  claim  even  the  lands  we  conquered  from  the 
"Kingites." 

The  Maories  have  always  been  a  village  people,  till- 
ing a  little  land  round  their  pahs,  but  incapable  of 
making  any  use  of  the  great  pastures  and  wheat  coun- 
tries which  they  "own."  Had  we  at  first  constituted 
native  reserves,  on  the  American  system,  we  might, 


THE    TWO  FLIES.  333 

without  any  fighting,  and  without  any  more  rapid  de- 
struction of  the  natives  than  that  which  is  taking  place, 
have  gradually  cleared  and  brought  into  the  market 
nearly  the  whole  country,  which  now  has  to  be  pur- 
chased at  enormous  prices,  and  at  the  continual  risk 
of  war. 

As  it  is,  the  record  of  our  dealings  with  the  Queen's 
native  subjects  in  New  Zealand  has  been  almost  free 
from  stain,  but  if  we  have  not  committed  crimes,  we 
have  certainly  not  failed  to  blunder :  our  treatment  of 
William  Thompson  was  at  the  best  a  grave  mistake. 
If  ever  there  lived  a  patriot  he  was  one,  and  through 
him  we  might  have  ruled  in  peace  the  Maori  race. 
Instead  of  receiving  the  simplest  courtesy  from  a  people 
which  in  India  showers  honors  upon  its  puppet  kings 
and  rajahs,  he  underwent  fresh  insults  each  time  that 
he  entered  an  English  town  or  met  a  white  magistrate 
or  subaltern,  and  he  died,  while  I  was  in  the  colonies — 
according  to  Pakdha  physicians,  of  liver  complaint; 
according  to  the  Maories,  of  a  broken  heart. 

At  Parewanui  and  Otaki,  I  remarked  that  the  half- 
breeds  are  fine  fellows,  possessed  of  much  of  the  no- 
bility of  both  the  ancestral  races,  while  the  women  are 
famed  for  grace  and  loveliness.  In  miscegenation  it 
would  have  seemed  that  there  was  a  chance  for  the 
Maori,  who,  if  destined  to  die,  would  at  least  have  left 
many  of  his  best  features  of  body  and  mind  to  live  in 
the  mixed  race,  but  here  comes  in  the  prejudice  of 
blood,  with  which  we  have  already  met  in  the  case  of 
the  negroes  and  Chinese.  Morality  has  so  far  gained 
ground  as  greatly  to  check  the  spread  of  permanent 
illegitimate  connections  with  native  women,  while 
pride  prevents  intermarriage.  The  numbers  of  the 
half-breeds  are  not  upon  the  increase  :  a  few  fresh  mar- 
riages supply  the  vacancies  that  come  of  death,  but 


334  GEE  ATE  R    BRITAIN. 

there  is  no  progress,  no  sign  of  the  creation  of  a  vig- 
orous mixed  race.  There  is  something  more  in  this 
than  foolish  pride,  however ;  there  is  a  secret  at  the 
bottom  at  once  of  the  cessation  of  mixed  marriages 
and  of  the  dwindling  of  the  pure  Maori  race,  and  it  is 
the  utter  viciousries-s  of  the  native  girls.  The  universal 
unchastity  of  the  unmarried  women,  "Christian"  as 
well  as  heathen,  would  be  sufficient  to  destroy  a  race 
of  gods.  The  story  of  the  Maories  is  that  of  the  Tahi- 
tiaiis,  and  is  written  in  the  decorations  of  every  gate- 
post or  rafter  in  their  pahs. 

We  are  more  distressed  at  the  present  and  future  of 
the  Maories  than  they  are  themselves.  For  all  our 
greatness,  we  pity  not  the  Maories  more  profoundly 
than  they  do  us  when,  ascribing  our  morality  to  calcu- 
lation, they  bask  in  the  sunlight,  and  are  happy  in 
their  gracelessness.  After  all,  virtue  and  arithmetic 
come  from  one  Greek  root. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    PACIFIC. 

CLOSELY  resembling  Great  Britain  in  situation,  size, 
and  climate,  New  Zealand  is  often  styled  by  the  col- 
onists "The  Britain  of  the  South,"  and  many  affect  to 
believe  that  her  future  is  destined  to  be  as  brilliant  as 
has  been  the  past  of  her  mother  country.  With  the 
exaggeration  of  phrase  to  which  the  English  New  Zea- 
landers  are  prone,  they  prophesy  a  marvelous  here- 
after for  the  whole  Pacific,  in  which  New  Zealand,  as 


THE   PACIFIC.  335 

the  carrying  and  manufacturing  country,  is  to  play  the 
foremost  part,  the  Australian  following  obediently  in 
her  train. 

Even  if  the  differences  of  Separatists,  Provincialists, 
and  Centralists  should  be  healed,  the  future  prosperity 
of  New  Zealand  is  by  no  means  secure.  Her  gold 
yield  is  only  about  a  fifth  of  that  of  California  or  Vic- 
toria. Her  area  is  not  sufficient  to  make  her  powerful 
as  an  agricultural  or  pastoral  country,  unless  she  comes 
to  attract  manufactures  and  carrym^rade  from  afar, 
and  the  prospect  of  New  Zealand  succeeding  in  this 
effort  is  but  small.  Her  rivers  are  almost  useless  for 
manufacturing  purposes  owing  to  their  floods;  the 
timber  supply  of  all  her  forests  is  not  equal  to  that  of 
a  single  county  in  the  State  of  Oregon;  her  coal  is 
inferior  in  quality  to  that  of  Vancouver  Island,  in  quan- 
tity to  that  of  Chili,  in  both  respects  to  that  of  New 
South  Wales.  The  harbors  of  New  Zealand  are  upon 
the  eastern  coasts,  but  the  coal  is  chiefly  upon  the 
other  side,  where  the  river  bars  make  trade  impos- 
sible. 

The  coal  that  has  been  found  at  the  Bay  of  Islands 
is  said  to  be  plentiful  and  of  good  quality,  and  may  be 
made  largely  available  for  steamers  on  the  coast ;  the 
steel  sand  of  Taranaki,  smelted  by  the  use  of  petro- 
leum, also  found  within  the  province,  may  become  of 
value ;  her  own  wool,  too,  New  Zealand  will  doubtless 
one  day  manufacture  into  cloth  and  blankets;  but 
these  are  comparatively  trifling  matters :  New  Zealand 
may  become  rich  and  populous  without  being  the  great 
power  of  the  Pacific,  or  even  of  the  South. 

The  climate  of  the  North  Island  is  winterless,  moist, 
and  warm,  and  its  effects  are  already  seen  in  a  certain 
want  of  enterprise  shown  by  the  government  and  set- 
tlers. I  remarked  that  the  mail  steamers  which  leave 


336  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Wellington  almost  every  day  are  invariably  "  detained 
for  dispatches :"  it  looks  as  though  the  officers  of  the 
colonial  or  imperial  government  commence  to  write 
their  letters  only  when  the  hour  for  the  sailing  of  the 
ship  has  come.  An  Englishman  visiting  New  Zealand 
was  asked  in  my  presence  how  long  his  business  at 
Wanganui  would  keep  him  in  the  town.  His  answer 
was :  "In  London  it  would  take  me  half  an  hour ;  so 
I  suppose  about  a  week — about  a  week!" 

In  Java,  and^|e  other  islands  of  the  Indian  archi- 
pelago, we  fincrexamples  of  the  effect  of  the  supine- 
ness  of  dwellers  in  the  tropics  upon  the  economic 
position  of  their  countries.  Many  of  the  Indian  isles 
possess  both  coal  and  cheap  labor,  but  have  failed  to 
become  manufacturing  communities  on  a  large  scale 
only  because  the  natives  have  not  the  energy  requisite 
for  the  direction  of  factories  and  workshops,  while 
European  foremen  have  to  be  paid  enormous  wages, 
and,  losing  their  spirit  in  the  damp,  unchanging  cli- 
mate of  the  islands,  soon  become  more  indolent  than 
the  natives. 

The  position  of  the  various  stores  of  coal  in  the 
Pacific  is  of  extreme  importance  as  an  index  to  the 
future  distribution  of  power  in  that  portion  of  the 
world ;  but  it  is  not  enough  to  know  where  coal  is  to 
be  found  without  looking  also  to  the  quantity,  quality, 
cheapness  of  labor,  and  facility  for  transport.  In  China 
(in  the  Si  Shan  district)  and  in  Borneo,  there  are  ex- 
tensive coal  fields,  but  they  lie  "the  wrong  way"  for 
trade.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Californian  coal — at 
Monte  Diablo,  San  Diego,  and  Monterey — lies  well, 
but  is  bad  in  quality.  The  Talcahuano  bed  in  Chili 
is  not  good  enough  for  ocean  steamers,  but  might  be 
made  use  of  for  manufactures,  although  Chili  has  but 
little  iron.  Tasmania  has  good  coal,  but  in  no  great 


THE   PACIFIC.  337 

quantity,  and  the  beds  nearest  to  the  coast  are  formed 
of  inferior  anthracite.  The  three  countries  of  the  Pa- 
cific which  must,  for  a  time  at  least,  rise  to  manufac- 
turing greatness,  are  Japan,  Vancouver  Island,  and 
New  South  Wales,  but  which  of  these  will  become 
wealthiest  and  most  powerful  depends  mainly  on  the 
amount  of  coal  which  they  respectively  possess  so 
situated  as  to  be  cheaply  raised.  The  dearness  of  labor 
under  which  Vancouver  suffers  will  be  removed  by  the 
opening  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  but  for  the  present 
New  South  "Wales  has  the  cheaper  labor;  and  upon 
her  shores  at  Newcastle  are  abundant  stores  of  a  coal 
of  good  quality  for  manufacturing  purposes,  although 
for  sea  use  it  burns  "dirtily,"  and  too  fast,  the  colony 
possesses  also  ample  beds  of  iron,  copper,  and  lead. 
Japan,  as  far  as  can  be  at  present  seen,  stands  before 
Vancouver  and  New  South  Wales  in  almost  every 
point:  she  has  cheap  labor,  good  climate,  excellent 
harbors,  and  abundant  coal ;  cotton  can  be  grown  upon 
her  soil,  and  this,  and  that  of  Queensland,  she  can 
manufacture  and  export  to  America  and  to  the  East. 
Wool  from  California  and  from  the  Australias  might 
be  carried  to  her  to  be  worked,  and  her  rise  to  com- 
mercial greatness  has  already  commenced  with  the 
passage  of  a  law  allowing  Japanese  workmen  to  take 
service  with  European  capitalists  in  the  "treaty-ports." 
Whether  Japan  or  New  South  Wales  is  destined  to 
become  the  great  wool-manufacturing  country,  it  is 
certain  that  fleeces  will  not  long  continue  to  be  sent 
half  round  the  world — from  Australia  to  England — to 
be  worked,  and  then  round  the  other  half  back  from 
England  to  Australia,  to  be  sold  as  blankets. 

The  future  of  the  Pacific  shores  is  inevitably  bril- 
liant ;  but  it  is  not  New  Zealand,  the  center  of  the 
water  hemisphere,  which  will  occupy  the  position  that 


338  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

England  has  taken  in  the  Atlantic,  but  some  country 
such  as  Japan  or  Vancouver,  jutting  out  into  the  ocean 
from  Asia  or  from  America,  as  England  juts  out  from 
Europe.  If  New  South  Wales  usurps  the  position,  it 
will  be  not  from  her  geographical  situation,  but  from 
the  manufacturing  advantages  she  gains  by  the  posses- 
sion of  vast  mineral  wealth. 

The  political  power  of  America  in  the  Pacific  ap- 
pears predominant :  the  Sandwich  Islands  are  all  but 
annexed,  Japan  all  but  ruled  by  her,  while  the  occupa- 
tion of  British  Columbia  is  but  a  matter  of  time,  and 
a  Mormon  descent  upon  the  Marquesas  is  already 
planned.  The  relations  of  America  and  Australia  will 
be  the  key  to  the  future  of  the  South. 

****** 

On  the  26th  of  December  I  left  New  Zealand  for 
Australia. 


APPENDIX. 


A    MAORI    DINNER. 

FOR  those  who  would  make  trial  of  Maori  dishes,  here  is  a 
native  bill-of-fare,  such  as  can  be  imitated  in  the  South  of 
England : 

HAKARI  MAORI— A  MAORI  FEAST. 


BILL-OF-FARE. 
SOUP. 

KOTA  KOTA Any  shell-fish. 

PISH. 

INANGA  ....    Whitebait  (boiled  in  milk,  with  leeks). 
PIHARAU     .     .     .    Lamprey  (stewed). 
TUNA      ....    Eels  (steamed). 

MADE-DISHES. 

PUKEKO Moor-hen  (steamed). 

KOURA Craw-fish  (boiled). 

Tui  Tui Thrush  (roast). 

KERERU       Pigeon  (baked  in  clay). 

ROAST. 

POOKA Pork  (short  pig). 

(339) 


340  APPENDIX. 

GAME. 

PARERA    ....  Wild  Duck  (roasted  on  embers). 

VEGETABLES. 

PAUKENA Pumpkin. 

-  KAMU  KAMU Vegetable  Marrow. 

KAPUTI Cabbage  (steamed). 

KUMATA Sweet  Potatoes. 

SWEETS. 

TATARAMOA     .     .  Cranberries  (steamed). 

TANA      ....  Damsons  (steamed  with  sugar). 

DESSERT. 

KARAMU  Currants. 


PIKAKARIKA,  Dec.  1866. 


END  OP  VOL.  I. 


GREATER  BRITAIN. 


A   EECOED   OF  TRAVEL 


ENGLISH-SPEAKING  COUNTRIES 


DURING  1866-7. 


CHARLES  WENTWORTH  DILKE. 


VOL.  II. 

WITH  MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO. 
1869. 


III. 

AUSTRALIA. 


VOL.  U. 


(6) 


GREATER   BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    I. 

SYDNEY. 

AT  early  light  on  Christmas-day,  I  put  off  from 
shore  in  one  of  those  squalls  for  which  Port  Nichol- 
son, the  harbor  of  Wellington,  is  famed.  A  boat  which 
started  from  the  ship  at  the  same  time  as  mine  from 
the  land,  was  upset,  but  in  such  shallow  water  that 
the  passengers  were  saved,  though  they  lost  a  portion 
of  their  baggage.  As  we  flew  toward  the  mail  steamer, 
the  Kaikoura,  the  harbor  was  one  vast  sheet  of  foam, 
and  columns  of  spray  were  being  whirled  in  the  air, 
and  borne  away  far  inland  upon  the  gale.  "We  had 
placed  at  the  helm  a  post-office  clerk,  who  said  that  he 
could  steer,  but,  as  we  reached  the  steamer's  side, 
instead  of  luffing-up,  he  suddenly  put  the  helm  hard 
a-weather,  and  we  shot  astern  of  her,  running  violently 
before  the  wind,  although  our  treble-reefed  sail  was 
by  this  time  altogether  down.  A  rope  was  thrown  us 
from  a  coal  hulk,  and,  catching  it,  we  were  soon  on 
board,  and  spent  our  Christmas  walking  up  and  down 
her  deck  on  the  slippery  black  dust,  and  watching  the 
effects  of  the  gale.  After  some  hours  the  wind  mod- 
erated, and  I  reached  the  Kaikoura  just  before  she 
sailed.  While  we  were  steaming  out  of  the  harbor 

m 


8  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

through  the  boil  of  waters  that  marks  the  position  of 
the  submarine  crater,  I  found  that  there  was  but  one 
other  passenger  for  Australia  to  share  with  me  the 
services  of  ten  officers  and  ninety  men,  and  the  accom- 
modations of  a  ship  of  1500  tons.  "Serious  prepara- 
tions and  a  large  ship  for  a  mere  voyage  from  one  Aus- 
tralasian colony  to  another,"  I  felt  inclined  to  say,  but 
during  the  voyage  and  my  first  week  in  New  South 
Wales  I  began  to  discover  that  in  England  we  are 
given  over  to  a  singular  delusion  as  to  the  connection 
of  New  Zealand  and  Australia. 

Australasia  is  a  term  much  used  at  home  to  express 
the  whole  of  our  Antipodean  possessions ;  in  the  col- 
onies themselves  the  name  is  almost  unknown,  or,  if 
used,  is  meant  to  embrace  Australia  and  Tasmania, 
not  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  The  only  reference 
to  New  Zealand,  except  in  the  way  of  foreign  news, 
that  I  ever  found  in  an  Australian  paper,  was  a  con- 
gratulatory paragraph  on  the  amount  of  the  New  Zea- 
land debt;  the  only  allusion  to  Australia  that  I  ever 
detected  in  the  Wellington  Independent  was  in  a  glance 
at  the  future  of  the  colony,  in  which  the  editor  pre- 
dicted the  advent  of  a  time  when  New  Zealand  would 
be  a  great  naval  nation,  and  her  fleet  engaged  in  bom- 
barding Melbourne,  or  levying  a  contribution  upon 
Sydney. 

New  Zealand,  though  a  change  for  the  better  is  at 
hand,  has  hitherto  been  mainly  an  aristocratic  country; 
New  South  Wales  and  Victoria  mainly  democratic. 
Had  Australia  and  New  Zealand  been  close  together, 
instead  of  as  far  apart  as  Africa  and  South  America, 
there  could  have  been  no  political  connection  between 
them  so  long  as  the  traditions  of  their  first  settlement 
endured. 

Not  only  is  the  name  "Australasia"  politically  mean- 


SYDNEY.  9 

ingless,  but  geographically  incorrect,  for  New  Zealand 
and  Australia  are  as  completely  separated  from  each 
other  as  Great  Britain  and  Massachusetts.  No  prom- 
ontory of  Australia  runs  out  to  within  1000  miles  of 
any  New  Zealand  cape ;  the  distance  between  Sydney 
and  Wellington  is  1400  miles ;  from  Sydney  to  Auck- 
land about  the  same.  The  distance  from  the  nearest 
point  of  New  Zealand  of  Tasman's  peninsula,  which 
itself  projects  somewhat  from  Tasmania,  is  greater  than 
that  of  London  from  Algiers :  from  Wellington  to 
Sydney,  opposite  ports,  is  as  far  as  from  Manchester 
to  Iceland,  or  from  Africa  to  Brazil. 

The  sea  that  lies  between  the  two  great  countries  of 
the  south  is  not,  like  the  Central  or  North  Pacific,  a 
sea  bridged  with  islands,  ruffled  with  trade  winds, 
favorable  to  sailing  ships,  or  overspread  with  a  calm 
that  permits  the  presence  of  light-draught  paddle 
steamers.  The  seas  which  separate  Australia  from 
New  Zealand  are  cold,  bottomless,  without  islands, 
torn  by  Arctic  currents,  swept  by  polar  gales,  and  trav- 
ersed in  all  weathers  by  a  mountainous  swell.  After 
the  gale  of  Christmas-day  we  were  blessed  with  a  con- 
tinuance of  light  breezes  on  our  way  to  Sydney,  but 
never  did  we  escape  the  long  rolling  hills  of  seas  that 
seemed  to  surge  up  from  the  Antarctic  pole:  our  screw 
was  as  often  out  of  as  in  the  water ;  and  in  a  fast  new 
ship  we  could  scarcely  average  nine  knots  an  hour 
throughout  the  day.  The  ship  which  had  brought  the 
last  Australian  mail  to  Wellington  before  we  sailed 
was  struck  by  a  sea  which  swept  her  from  stem  to 
stern,  and  filled  her  cabin  two  feet  deep,  and  this  in 
December,  which  here  is  midsummer,  and  answers  to 
our  July.  Not  only  is  the  intervening  ocean  wide  and 
cold,  but  New  Zealand  presents  to  Australia  a  rugged 
coast  guarded  by  reefs  and  bars,  and  backed  by  a 


10  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

snowy  range,  while  she  turns  toward  Polynesia  and 
America  all  her  ports  and  bays. 

No  two  countries  in  the  world  are  so  wholly  distinct 
as  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  The  islands  of  New 
Zealand  are  inhabited  by  Polynesians,  the  Australian 
continent  by  negroes.  New  Zealand  is  ethnologically 
nearer  to  America,  Australia  to  Africa,  than  New  Zea- 
land to  Australia. 

If  we  turn  from  ethnology  to  scenery  and  climate, 
the  countries  are  still  more  distinct.  New  Zealand  is 
one  of  the  groups  of  volcanic  islands  that  stud  the 
Pacific  throughout  its  whole  extent ;  tremendous  cliffs 
surround  it  on  almost  every  side;  a  great  mountain 
chain  runs  through  both  islands  from  north  to  south; 
hot  springs  abound,  often  close  to  glaciers  and  eternal 
snows;  earthquakes  are  common,  and  active  volcanoes 
not  unknown.  The  New  Zealand  climate  is  damp  and 
windy ;  the  land  is  covered  in  most  parts  with  a  tangled 
jungle  of  tree-ferns,  creepers,  and  parasitic  plants; 
water  never  fails,  and,  though  winter  is  unknown,  the 
summer  heat  is  never  great;  the  islands  are  always 
green.  Australia  has  for  the  most  part  flat,  yellow, 
sun-burnt  shores;  the  soil  may  be  rich,  the  country 
good  for  wheat  and  sheep,  but  to  the  eye  it  is  an  arid 
plain  ;  the  winters  are  pleasant,  but  in  the  hot  weather 
the  thermometer  rises  higher  in  the  interior  than  it 
does  in  India,  and  dust  storms  and  hot  winds  sweep 
•the  land  from  end  to  end.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
countries  more  unlike  each  other  than  are  our  two 
great  dominions  of  the  south.  Their  very  fossils  are 
as  dissimilar  as  are  their  flora  and  fauna  of  our  time. 

At  the  dawn  of  the  first  day  of  the  new  year,  we 
sighted  the  rocks  where  the  Duncan  Dunbar  was  lost 
with  all  hands,  and  a  few  minutes  afterward  were 
boarded  by  the  crew  engaged  by  the  Sydney  Morning 


SYDNEY.  11 

Herald,  who  had  been  lying  at  "The  Heads"  all  night, 
to  intercept  and  telegraph  our  news  into  the  city.  The 
pilot  and  regular  news-boat  hailed  us  a  little  later,  when 
we  had  fired  a  gun.  The  contrast  between  this  Aus- 
tralian energy  and  the  supineness  of  the  New  Zealand- 
ers  was  striking,  but  not  more  so  than  that  between 
my  first  view  of  Australia  and  my  last  view  of  New 
Zealand.  Six  days  earlier  I  had  lost  sight  of  the  snowy 
peak  of  Mount  Egmont,  graceful  as  the  Cretan  Iva, 
while  we  ran  before  a  strong  breeze,  in  the  bright  Eng- 
lish sunlight  of  the  New  Zealand  afternoon  ;  the  al- 
batrosses screaming  around  our  stern :  to-day,  as  we 
steamed  up  Port  Jackson,  toward  Sydney  Cove,  in  the 
dead  stillness  that  follows  a  night  of  oven-like  heat, 
the  sun  rose  flaming  red  in  a  lurid  sky,  and  struck  down 
upon  brown  earth,  yellow  grass,  and  the  thin  shadeless 
foliage  of  the  Australian  bush ;  while,  as  we  anchored, 
the  ceaseless  chirping  of  the  crickets  in  the  grass  and 
trees  struck  harshly  on  the  ear. 

The  harbor,  commercially  the  finest  in  the  world,  is 
not  without  a  singular  beauty  if  seen  at  the  best  time. 
By  the  "  hot-wind  sunrise,"  as  I  first  saw  it,  the  heat 
and  glare  destroy  the  feeling  of  repose  which  the  end- 
less succession  of  deep,  sheltered  coves  would  other- 
wise convey;  but  seen  from  shore  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  sea-breeze  has  sprung  up,  turning  the  sky 
from  red  to  blue,  all  is  changed.  From  a  neck  of  land 
that  leads  out  to  the  Government  House,  you  catch  a 
glimpse  of  an  arm  of  the  bay  on  either  side,  rippled 
with  the  cool  wind,  intensely  blue,  and  dotted  with 
white  sails ;  the  brightness  of  the  colors  that  the  sea- 
breeze  brings  almost  atones  for  the  wind's  unhealthi- 
ness. 

In  the  upper  portion  of  the  town  the  scene  is  less 
picturesque;  the  houses  are  of  the  commonplace  Eng- 


12  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

lish  ugliness,  worst  of  all  possible  forms  of  architect- 
ural imbecility,  and  built,  too,  as  though  for  English 
fogs,  instead  of  semi-tropical  heat  and  sun.  Water  is 
not  to  be  had,  and  the  streets  are  given  up  to  clouds 
of  dust,  while  not  a  single  shade-tree  breaks  the  rays  of 
the  almost  vertical  sun. 

The  afternoon  of  New  Year's  day  I  spent  at  the 
"  Midsummer  Meeting"  of  the  Sydney  Jockey  Club, 
on  the  race-course  near  the  city,  and  found  a  vast 
crowd  of  holiday-makers  assembled  on  the  bare  red 
earth  that  did  duty  for  "turf,"  although  there  was  a 
hot  wind  blowing,  and  the  thermometer  stood  at  103° 
in  the  shade.  For  my  conveyance  to  the  race-course  I 
trusted  to  one  of  the  Australian  hansom  cabs,  made 
with  open  fixed  Venetian  blinds  on  either  side,  so  as 
to  allow  a  free  draught  of  air. 

The  ladies  in  the  grand  stand  were  scarcely  to  be 
distinguished  from  Englishwomen  in  dress  or  coun- 
tenance, but  the  crowd  presented  several  curious  types. 
The  fitness  of  the  term  "cornstalks,"  applied  to  the 
Australian-born  boys,  was  made  evident  by  a  glance 
at  their  height  and  slender  build;  they  have  plenty  of 
activity  and  health,  but  are  wanting  in  power  and 
weight.  The  girls,  too,  are  slight  and  thin;  delicate, 
without  being  sickly.  Grown  men  who  have  emigrated 
as  lads  and  lived  ten  or  fifteen  years  in  New  Zealand, 
eating  much  meat,  spending  their  days  in  the  open  air, 
constantly  in  the  saddle,  are  burly,  bearded,  strapping 
fellows,  physically  the  perfection  of  the  English  race, 
but  wanting  in  refinement  and  grace  of  mind,  and  this 
apparently  constitutionally,  not  through  the  accident 
of  occupation  or  position.  In  Australia  there  is  promise 
of  a  more  intellectual  nation:  the  young  Australians 
ride  as  well,  shoot  as  well,  swim  as  well,  as  the  New 
Zealanders,  are  as  little  given  to  book-learning,  but 


SYDNEY.  13 

there  is  more  shrewd  intelligence,  more  wit  and  quick- 
ness, in  the  sons  of  the  larger  continent.  The  Aus- 
tralians boast  that  they  possess  the  Grecian  climate, 
and  every  young  face  in  the  Sydney  crowd  showed  me 
that  their  sky  is  not  more  like  that  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesus than  they  are  like  the  old  Athenians.  The  eager 
burning  democracy  that  is  springing  up  in  the  Austra- 
lian great  towns  is  as  widely  different  ffom  the  repub- 
licanism of  the  older  States  of  the  American  Union  as 
it  is  from  the  good-natured  conservatism  of  New  Zea- 
land, and  their  high  capacity  for  personal  enjoyment 
would  of  itself  suffice  to  distinguish  the  Australians 
from  both  Americans  and  British.  Large  as  must  be 
the  amount  of  convict  blood  in  New  South  Wales, 
there  was  no  trace  of  it  in  the  faces  of  the  persons 
present  upon  the  race-course.  The  inhabitants  of  col- 
onies which  have  never  received  felon  immigrants  often 
cry  out  that  Sydney  is  a  convict  city,  but  the  prejudice 
is  not  borne  out  by  the  countenances  of  the  inhabitants, 
nor  by  the  records  of  local  crime.  The  black  stain 
has  not  yet  wholly  disappeared :  the  streets  of  Sydney 
are  still  a  greater  disgrace  to  civilization  than  are  even 
those  of  London;  but,  putting  the  lighter  immoralities 
aside,  security  for  life  and  property  is  not  more  perfect 
in  England  than  in  New  South  Wales.  The  last  of 
the  bushrangers  were  taken  while  I  was  in  Sydney. 

The  race-day  was  followed  by  a  succession  of  hot 
winds,  during  which  only  the  excellence  of  the  fruit- 
market  made  Sydney  endurable.  Not  only  are  the 
English  fruits  to  be  found,  but  plantains,  guavas, 
oranges,  loquats,  pomegranates,  pine-apples  from  Bris-* 
bane,  figs  of  every  kind,  and  the  delicious  passion- 
fruit;  and  if  the  gum-tree  forests  yield  no  shady  spots 
for  picnics,  they  are  not  wanting  among  the  rocks  at 
Botany,  or  in  the  luxuriant  orange-groves  of  Paramatta. 
VOL.  n.  2 


14  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

A  Christmas  week  of  heat  such  as  Sydney  has  sel- 
dom known  was  brought  to  a  close  by  one  of  the 
heaviest  southerly  storms  on  record.  During  the 
stifling  morning,  the  telegraph  had  announced  the  ap- 
proach of  a  gale  from  the  far  south,  but  in  the  early 
afternoon  the  heat  was  more  terrible  than  before,  when 
suddenly  the  sky  was  dark  with  whirling  clouds,  and 
a  cold  blast  swept  through  the  streets,  carrying  a  fog 
of  sand,  breaking  roofs  and  windows,  and  dashing  to 
pieces  many  boats.  When  the  gale  ceased,  some  three 
hours  later,  the  sand  was  so  deep  in  houses  that  here 
and  there  men's  feet  left  footprints  on  the  stairs. 

Storms  of  this  kind,  differing  only  one  from  another 
in  violence,  are  common  in  the  hot  weather:  they  are 
known  as  "  southerly  bursters;"  but  the  earlier  settlers 
called  them  "brickfielders,"  in  the  belief  that  the  dust 
they  brought  was  whirled  up  from  the  kilns  and  brick- 
fields to  the  south  of  Sydney.  The  fact  is  that  the 
sand  is  carried  along  for  one  or  two  hundred  miles, 
from  the  plains  in  Dampier  and  Auckland  counties ; 
for  the  Australian  "burster"  is  one  with  the  Punjaub 
dust-storm,  and  the  dirt-storm  of  Colorado. 


RIVAL    COLONIES.  15 


CHAPTER  II. 

RIVAL    COLONIES. 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES,  born  in  1788,  and  Queensland 
in  1859,  the  oldest  and  youngest  of  our  Australian 
colonies,  stand  side  by  side  upon  the  map,  and  have  a 
common  frontier  of  700  miles. 

The  New  South  Welsh  look  with  some  jealousy  upon 
the  more  recently  founded  States.  Upon  the  brilliant 
prosperity  of  Victoria  they  look  doubtingly,  and,  as- 
cribing it  merely  to  the  gold  fields,  talk  of  "shoddy;" 
but  of  Queensland  —  an  agricultural  country,  with 
larger  tracts  of  rich  lands  than  they  themselves  pos- 
sess— the  Sydney  folks  are  not  without  reason  envious. 

A  terrible  depression  is  at  present  pervading  trade 
and  agriculture  in  New  South  Wales.  Much  land 
near  Sydney  has  gone  out  of  cultivation;  labor  is 
scarce,  and  the  gold  discoveries  in  the  neighboring 
colonies,  by  drawing  off  the  surplus  population,  have 
made  harvest  labor  unattainable.  Many  properties 
have  fallen  to  one-third  their  former  value,  and  the 
colony — a  wheat-growing  country — is  now  importing 
wheat  and  flour  to  the  value  of  half  a  million  sterling 
every  year. 

The  depressed  condition  of  affairs  is  the  result, 
partly  of  commercial  panics  following  a  period  of  in- 
flation, partly  of  bad  seasons,  now  bringing  floods,  now 
drought  and  rust,  and  partly  of  the  discouragement  of 
immigration  by  the  colonial  democrats — a  policy  which, 
however  beneficial  to  Australia  it  may  in  the  long  run 


16  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

prove,  is  for  the  moment  ruinous  to  the  sheep-farmers 
and  to  the  merchants  in  the  towns.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  laborers  for  their  part  assert  that  the  arrivals  of 
strangers — at  all  events,  of  skilled  artisans — are  still 
excessive,  and  that  all  the  ills  of  the  colony  are  due  to 
over-immigration  and  free  trade. 

To  a  stranger,  the  rush  of  population  and  outpour 
of  capital  from  Sydney,  first  toward  Victoria,  but  now 
to  Queensland  and  New  Zealand,  appear  to  be  the  chief 
among  the  causes  of  the  momentary  decline  of  New 
South  Wales.  Of  immigrants  there  is  at  once  an  in- 
sufficient and  an  over-great  supply.  Respectable  serv- 
ant-girls, carpenters,  masons,  blacksmiths,  plasterers, 
and  the  like,  do  well  in  the  colonies,  and  are  always 
wanted ;  of  clerks,  governesses,  iron-workers,  and  the 
skilled  hands  of  manufacturers,  there  is  almost  always 
an  over-supply.  By  a  perverse  fate,  these  latter  are 
just  the  immigrants  of  whom  thousands  seek  the  col- 
onies every  year,  in  spite  of  the  daily  publication  in 
England  of  dissuading  letters. 

As  the  rivalry  of  the  neighbor-colonies  lessens  in 
the  lapse  of  time,  the  jealousy  that  exists  between 
them  will  doubtless  die  away,  but  it  seems  as  though 
it  will  be  replaced  by  a  political  divergence,  and  con- 
sequent aversion,  which  will  form  a  fruitful  source  of 
danger  to  the  Australian  confederation. 

In  Queensland  the  great  tenants  of  crown  lands, 
"squatters,"  as  they  are  called,  sheep-farmers  holding 
vast  tracts  of  inland  country,  are  in  possession  of  the 
government,  and  administer  the  laws  to  their  own 
advantage.  In  New  South  Wales  power  is  divided 
between  the  pastoral  tenants  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
democracy  of  the  towns  upon  the  other.  In  Victoria 
the  democrats  have  beaten  down  the  squatters,  and  in 
the  interests  of  the  people  put  an  end  to  their  reign  ; 


RIVAL    COLONIES.  17 

but  the  sheep-farmers  of  Queensland  and  of  the  interior 
districts  of  New  South  Wales,  ignoring  wells,  assert 
that  the  " up-country  desert "  or  "unwatered  tracts" 
can  never  be  made  available  for  agriculture,  while  the 
democracy  of  the  coast  point  to  the  fact  that  the  same 
statements  were  made  only  a  few  years  back  of  lands 
now  bearing  a  prosperous  population  of  agricultural 
settlers. 

The  struggle  between  the  great  crown  tenants  and 
the  agricultural  democracy  in  Victoria,  already  almost 
over,  in  New  South  Wales  can  be  decided  only  in  one 
way,  but  in  Queensland  the  character  of  the  country  is 
not  entirely  the  same :  the  coast  and  river  tracts  are 
tropical  bush-lands,  in  which  sheep-farming  is  impos- 
sible, and  in  which  sugar,  cotton,  and  spices  alone  can 
be  made  to  pay.  To  the  copper,  gold,  hides,  tallow, 
wool,  which  have  hitherto  formed  the  stereotyped  list 
of  Australian  exports,  the  Northern  colony  has  already 
added  ginger,  arrowroot,  tobacco,  coffee,  sugar,  cotton, 
cinnamon,  and  quinine. 

The  Queenslanders  have  not  yet  solved  the  problem 
of  the  settlement  of  a  tropical  country  by  Englishmen, 
and  of  its  cultivation  by  English  hands.  The  future, 
not  of  Queensland  merely,  but  of  Mexico,  of  Ceylon,  of 
every  tropical  country,  of  our  race,  of  free  government 
itself,  are  all  at  stake ;  but  the  success  of  the  experi- 
ment that  has  been  tried  between  Brisbane  and  Rock- 
ampton  has  not  been  great.  The  colony,  indeed,  has 
prospered  much,  quadrupling  its  population  and  treb- 
ling its  exports  and  revenue  in  six  years,  but  it  is  the 
Darling  Downs,  and  other  table-land  sheep  countries, 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Northern  gold  fields,  which 
are  the  main  cause  of  the  prosperity ;  and  in  the  sugar 
and  cotton  culture  of  the  coast,  colored  labor  is  now 

2* 


18  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

almost  exclusively  employed,  with  the  usual  effect  of 
degrading  field-work  in  the  eyes  of  European  settlers, 
and  of  forcing  upon  the  country  a  form  of  society  of 
the  aristocratic  type. 

It  is  possible  that  just  as  New  England  has  of  late 
forbidden  to  Louisiana  the  importation  of  Chinamen 
to  work  her  sugar  fields,  just  as  the  Kansas  radicals 
have  declared  that  they  will  not  recognize  the  Bombay 
Hammal  as  a  brother,  just  as  the  Victorians  have  re- 
fused to  allow  the  further  reception  of  convicts  by 
West  Australia,  separated  from  their  territories  by 
1000  miles  of  desert,  so  the  New  South  Welsh  and 
Victorians  combined  may  at  least  protest  against  the 
introduction  of  a  mixed  multitude  of  Bengalees,  China- 
men, South  Sea  Islanders,  and  Malays,  to  cultivate  the 
Queensland  coast  plantations.  If,  however,  the  other 
colonies  permit  their  Northern  sister  to  continue  in  her 
course  of  importing  dark-skinned  laborers,  to  form  a 
peon  population,  a  few  years  will  see  her  a  wealthy 
cotton  and  sugar-growing  country,  with  all  the  vices  of 
a  slaveholding  government,  though  without  the  name 
of  slavery.  The  planters  of  the  coast  and  villages,  united 
with  the  squatters  of  the  table-lands  or  "Downs,"  will 
govern  Queensland,  and  render  union  with  the  free 
colonies  impossible,  unless  great  gold  discoveries  take 
place,  and  save  the  country  to  Australia. 

Were  it  not  for  the  pride  of  race  that  everywhere 
shows  itself  in  the  acts  of  English  settlers,  there  might 
be  a  bright  side  to  the  political  future  of  Queensland 
colony.  The  colored  laborers  at  present  introduced, 
industrious  Tongans,  and  active  Hill-coolies  from  Hin- 
dostan,  laborious,  sober,  and  free  from  superstition, 
should  not  only  be  able  to  advance  the  commercial 
fortunes  of  Queensland  as  they  have  those  of  the  Mau- 
ritius, but  eventually  to  take  an  equal  share  in  free 


RIVAL    COLONIES.  19 

government  with  their  white  employers.  To  avoid  the 
gigantic  evil  of  the  degradation  of  hand  labor,  which 
has  ruined  morally  as  well  as  economically  the  South- 
ern States  of  the  American  republic,  the  Indian,  Malay, 
and  Chinese  laborers  should  be  tempted  to  become 
members  of  landholding  associations.  A  large  spice 
and  sugar-growing  population  in  Northern  Queensland 
would  require  a  vast  agricultural  population  in  the 
south  to  feed  it,  and  the  two  colonies,  hitherto  rivals, 
might  grow  up  as  sister  countries,  each  depending 
upon  the  other  for  the  supply  of  half  its  needs.  It  is, 
however,  worthy  of  notice  that  the  agreements  of  the 
Queensland  planters  with  the  imported  dark-skinned 
field-hands  provide  only  for  the  payment  of  wages  in 
goods,  at  the  rates  of  65.  to  105.  a  month.  The  "  goods" 
consist  of  pipes,  tobacco,  knives,  and  beads.  Judging 
from  the  experience  of  California  and  Ceylon,  there 
can  be  little  hope  of  the  general  admission  of  colored 
men  to  equal  rights  by  English  settlers,  and  the  Pacific 
islands  offer  so  tempting  a  field  to  the  kidnapping  com- 
manders of  colonial  "  island  schooners,"  that  there  is 
much  fear  that  Queensland  may  come  to  show  us  not 
merely  semi-slavery,  but  peonage  of  that  worst  of  kinds, 
in  which  it  is  cheaper  to  work  the  laborer  to  death 
than  to  "  breed"  him. 

Such  is  the  present  rapidity  of  the  growth  and  rise 
to  power  of  tropical  Queensland,  such  the  apparent 
poverty  of  New  South  Wales,  that  were  the  question 
merely  one  between  the  Sydney  wheat-growers  and  the 
cotton-planters  of  Brisbane  and  Rockampton,  the  sub- 
tropical settlers  would  be  as  certain  of  the  foremost 
position  in  any  future  confederation  as  they  were  in 
America  when  the  struggle  lay  only  between  the  Caro- 
linas  and  New  England.  As  it  is,  just  as  America  was 
first  saved  by  the  coal  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  Aus- 


20  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

tralia  will  be  saved  by  the  coal  of  New  South  Wales. 
Queensland  possesses  some  small  stores  of  coal,  but  the 
vast  preponderance  of  acreage  of  the  great  power  of 
the  future  is  on  the  side  of  the  free  settlers  of  the 
cooler  climate,  at  Newcastle,  in  New  South  Wales. 

On  my  return  from  a  short  voyage  to  the  north,  I 
visited  the  coal  field  of  New  South  Wales  at  Newcastle, 
on  the  Hunter.  The  beds  are  of  vast  extent,  they  lie 
upon  the  banks  of  a  navigable  river,  and  so  near  to  the 
surface  that  the  best  qualities  are  raised,  in  a  country 
of  dear  labor,  at  8s.  or  9s.  the  ton,  and  delivered  on 
board  ship  for  125.  For  manufacturing  purposes  the 
coal  is  perfect;  for  steamship  use  it  is,  though  some- 
what "dirty,"  a  serviceable  fuel;  and  copper  and  iron 
are  found  in  close  proximity  to  the  beds.  The  New- 
castle and  Port  Jackson  fields  open  a  singularly  bril- 
liant future  to  Sydney  in  these  times,  when  coal  is 
king  in  a  far  higher  degree  than  was  ever  cotton.  To 
her  black  beds  the  colony  will  owe  not  only  manu- 
factures, bringing  wealth  and  population,  but  that 
leisure  which  is  begotten  of  wealth — leisure  that  brings 
culture,  and  love  of  harmony  and  truth. 

Manufactories  are  already  springing  up  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Sydney,  adding  to  the  whirl  and  the  bustle 
of  the  town,  and  adding,  too,  to  its  enormous  popula- 
tion, already  disproportionate  to  that  of  the  colony  in 
which  it  stands.  As  the  depot  for  much  of  the  trade 
of  Queensland  and  New  Zealand,  and  as  the  metropolis 
of  pleasure  to  which  the  wealthy  squatters  pour  from 
all  parts  of  Australia,  to  spend,  rapidly  enough,  their 
hard-won  money,  Sydney  would  in  any  case  have  been 
a  populous  city;  but  the  barrenness  of  the  country  in 
which  it  stands  has,  until  the  recent  opening  of  the 
railroads,  tended  still  further  to  increase  its  size,  by 
failing  to  tempt  into  country  districts  the  European 


RIVAL    COLONIES.  21 

immigrants.  The  Irish  in  Sydney  form  a  third  of  the 
whole  population,  yet  hardly  one  of  these  men  but 
meant  to  settle  upon  land  when  he  left  his  native  island. 

In  France  there  is  a  tendency  to  migrate  to  Paris, 
in  Austria  a  continual  drain  toward  Vienna,  in  Eng- 
land toward  London.  A  corresponding  tendency  is 
observable  throughout  Australia  and  America.  Immi- 
grants hang  about  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston, 
Sydney,  Melbourne ;  and,  finding  that  they  can  scrape 
a  living  in  these  large  cities  with  toil  somewhat  less 
severe  than  that  which  would  be  needed  to  procure 
them  a  decent  livelihood  in  the  bush,  the  unthrifty  as 
well  as  the  dissipated  throng  together  in  densely-popu- 
lated "bad  quarters"  in  these  cities,  and  render  the 
first  quarter  of  New  York  and  the  so-called  "  Chinese  " 
quarter  of  Melbourne  a  danger  to  the  colonies,  and  an 
insult  to  the  civilization  of  the  world. 

In  the  case  of  Australia  this  concentration  of  popu- 
lation is  becoming  more  remarkable  day  by  day.  Even 
under  the  system  of  free  selection,  by  which  the  legis- 
lature has  attempted  to  encourage  agricultural  settle- 
ment, the  moment  a  free  selector  can  make  a  little 
money  he  comes  to  one  of  the  capitals  to  spend  it. 
Sydney  is  the  city  of  pleasure,  to  which  the  wealthy 
Queensland  squatters  resort  to  spend  their  money,  re- 
turning to  the  north  for  fresh  supplies  only  when  they 
cannot  afford  another  day  of  dissipation,  while  Mel- 
bourne receives  the  outpour  of  Tasmania. 

The  rushing  to  great  cities  the  moment  there  is 
money  to  be  spent,  characteristic  of  the  settlers  in  all 
these  colonies,  is  much  to  be  regretted,  and  presents  a 
sad  contrast  to  the  quiet  stay-at-home  habits  of  Amer- 
ican farmers.  Everything  here  is  fever  and  excite- 
ment ; — as  in  some  systems  of  geometry,  motion  is  the 
primary,  rest  the  derived  idea.  New  South  Welshmen 


22  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

tell  you  that  this  unquiet  is  peculiar  to  Victoria;  to  a 
Dew-comer  it  seems  as  rife  in  Sydney  as  in  Melbourne. 
Judging  from  the  colonial  government  reports,  which 
immigrants  are  conjured  by  the  inspectors  to  procure 
and  read,  and  which  are  printed  in  a  cheap  form  for 
the  purpose,  the  New  South  Welsh  can  hardly  wish  to 
lure  settlers  into  "the  bush,"  for  in  one  of  these  docu- 
ments, published  while  I  was  in  Sydney,  the  curator 
of  the  museum  reported  that  he  never  went  more  than 
twelve  miles  from  the  city,  but  that  within  that  circuit 
he  found  seventeen  distinct  species  of  land  snakes,  two 
of  sea  snakes,  thirty  of  lizards,  and  sixteen  of  frogs — 
seventy-eight  species  of  reptiles  rewarded  him  in  all. 
The  seventeen  species  of  land  snakes  found  by  him 
within  the  suburbs  were  named  by  the  curator  in  a 
printed  list ;  it  commenced  with  the  pale-headed  snake, 
and  ended  with  the  death-adder. 


CHAPTER  III. 

VICTORIA. 

THE  smallest  of  our  southern  colonies  except  Tas- 
mania,— one-fourth  the  size  of  New  South  Wales,  one- 
eighth  of  Queensland,  one-twelfth  of  West  Australia, 
one-fifteenth  of  South  Australia, —  Victoria  is  the 
wealthiest  of  the  Australian  nations,  and,  India  alone 
excepted,  has  the  largest  trade  of  any  of  the  depend- 
encies of  Great  Britain. 

When  Mr.  Fawkner's  party  knded  in  1835  upon  the 
Yarra  banks,  mooring  their  boat  to  the  forest  trees, 


VICTORIA.  23 

they  formed  a  settlement  upon  a  grassy  hill  behind  a 
marsh,  and  began  to  pasture  sheep  where  Melbourne, 
the  capital,  now  stands.  In  twenty  years,  Melbourne 
became  the  largest  city  but  one  in  the  southern  hemis- 
phere, having  150,000  people  within  her  limits  or  those 
of  the  suburban  towns.  Victoria  has  grander  public 
buildings  in  her  capital,  larger  and  more  costly  rail- 
roads, a  greater  income,  and  a  heavier  debt  than  any 
other  colony,  and  she  pays  to  her  governor  <£10,000  a 
year,  or  one-fourth  more  than  even  New  South  Wales. 

When  looked  into,  all  this  success  means  gold. 
There  is  industry,  there  is  energy,  there  is  talent,  there 
is  generosity  and  public  spirit,  but  they  are  the  abili- 
ties and  virtues  that  gold  will  bring,  in  bringing  a  rush 
from  all  the  world  of  dashing  fellows  in  the  prime  of 
life.  The  progress  of  Melbourne  is  that  of  San  Fran- 
cisco ;  it  is  the  success  of  Kokitika  on  a  larger  scale, 
and  refined  and  steadied  by  having  lasted  through  some 
years — the  triumph  of  a  population  which  has  hitherto 
consisted  chiefly  of  adult  males. 

Sydney  people,  in  their  jealousy  of  the  Victorians, 
refuse  to  admit  even  that  the  superior  energy  of  the 
Melbourne  men  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  their 
having  been  the  pride  of  the  spirited  youths  of  all  the 
world,  brought  together  by  the  rush  for  gold.  At  the 
time  of  the  first  "find"  in  1851,  all  the  resolute,  able, 
physically  strong  do-noughts  of  Europe  and  America 
flocked  into  Port  Phillip,  as  Victoria  was  then  called, 
and  such  timid  and  weak  men  as  came  along  with  them 
being  soon  crowded  out,  the  men  of  energy  and  tough 
vital  force  alone  remained. 

Some  of  the  New  South  Welsh,  shutting  their  eyes 
to  the  facts  connected  with  the  gold-rush,  assert  so 
loudly  that  the  Victorians  are  the  refuse  of  California, 
or  "Yankee  scum,"  that  when  I  first  landed  in  Mel- 


24  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

bourne  I  expected  to  find  street-cars,  revolvers,  big 
hotels,  and  fire-clubs,  euchre,  caucusses,  and  mixed 
drinks.  I  could  discover  nothing  American  about 
Melbourne  except  the  grandeur  of  the  public  buildings 
"  and  the  width  of  the  streets,  and  its  people  are  far  more 
thoroughly  British  than  are  the  citizens  of  the  rival 
capital.  In  many  senses  Melbourne  is  the  London, 
Sydney  the  Paris,  of  Australia. 

About  the  surpassing  vigor  of  the  Victorians  there 
can  be  no  doubt;  a  glance  at  the  map  shows  the  Vic- 
torian railways  stretching  to  the  Murray,  while  those 
of  New  South  Wales  are  still  boggling  at  the  Green 
Hills,  fifty  miles  from  Sydney.  Melbourne,  the  more 
distant  port,  has  carried  off  the  Australian  trade  with 
the  New  Zealand  gold  fields  from  Sydney,  the  nearer 
port.  Melbourne  imports  Sydney  shale,  and  makes 
from  it  mineral  oil,  before  the  Sydney  people  have 
found  out  its  value;  and  gas  in  Melbourne  is  cheaper 
than  in  Sydney,  though  the  Victorians  are  bringing 
their  coal  five  hundred  miles,  from  a  spot  only  fifty 
miles  from  Sydney. 

It  is  possible  that  the  secret  of  the  superior  energy 
of  the  Victorians  may  be,  not  in  the  fact  that  they  are 
more  American,  but  more  English,  than  the  New 
South  Welsh.  The  leading  Sydney  people  are  mainly 
the  sonsvor  grandsons  of  original  settlers,  "cornstalks" 
reared  in  the  semi-tropical  climate  of  the  coast;  the 
Victorians  are  full-blooded  English  immigrants,  bred 
in  the  more  rugged  climes  of  Tasmania,  Canada,  or 
Great  Britain,  and  brought  only  in  their  maturity  to 
live  in  the  exhilarating  air  of 'Melbourne,  the  finest 
climate  in  the  world  for  'healthy  men :  Melbourne  is 
hotter  than  Sydney,  but  its  climate  is  never  tropical. 
The  squatters  on  the  Queensland  downs,  mostly  immi- 
grants from  England,  show  the  same  strong  vitality 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW. 


BUSH   SCENERY. 


COLLINS    STREET   EAST,   MELBOURNE.— P.  24. 


VICTORIA.  25 

that  the  Melbourne  men  possess;  but  their  brother  im- 
migrants in  Brisbane — the  Queensland  capital,  where 
the  afternoon  languid  breeze  resembles  that  of  Sydney 
— are  as  incapable  of  prolonged  exertion  as  are  the 
Sydney  "  cornstalks." 

Whatever  may  be  the  causes  of  the  present  triumph 
of  Melbourne  over  Sydney,  the  inhabitants  of  the  latter 
city  are  far  from  accepting  it  as  likely  to  be  permanent. 
They  cannot  but  admit  the  present  glory  of  what  they 
call  the  "Mushroom  City."  The  magnificent  pile  of 
the  new  Post-office,  the  gigantic  Treasury  (which, 
when  finished,  will  be  larger  than  our  own  in  Lon- 
don), the  University,  the  Parliament-house,  the  Union 
and  Melbourne  Clubs,  the  City  Hall,  the  Wool  Ex- 
change, the  viaducts  upon  the  government  railroad 
lines, — all  are  Cyclopean  in  their  architecture,  all  seem 
built  as  if  to  last  forever;  still,  they  say  that  there  is  a 
certain  want  of  permanence  about  the  prosperity  of 
Victoria.  When  the  gold  discovery  took  place,  in 
1851,  such  trade  sprang  up  that  the  imports  of  the 
colony  jumped  from  one  million  to  twenty-five  mil- 
lions sterling  in  three  years ;  but,  although  she  is  now 
commencing  to  ship  breadstuffs  to  Great  Britain,  ex- 
ports and  imports  alike  show  a  steady  decrease.  Con- 
siderably more  than  half  of  the  hand-workers  of  the 
colony  are  still  engaged  in  gold-mining,  and  nearly 
half  the  population  is  resident  upon  the  gold  fields ; 
yet  the  yield  shows,  year  by  year,  a  continual  decline. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  discoveries  in  New  Zealand, 
which  have  carried  oft'  the  floating  digger  population, 
and  for  the  wise  discouragement  by  the  democrats  of 
the  monopolization  of  the  land,  there  would  have  been 
distress  upon  the  gold  fields  during  the  last  few  years. 
The  Victorian  population  is  already  nearly  stationary, 
and  the  squatters  call  loudly  for  assisted  immigration 

VOL.  II.  3 


26  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

and  free  trade,  but  the  stranger  sees  nothing  to  astonish 
him  in  the  temporary  stagnation  that  attends  a  de- 
creasing gold  production. 

The  exact  economical  position  that  Victoria  occupies 
is  easily  ascertained,  for  her  statistics  are  the  most  per- 
fect in  the  world ;  the  arrangement  is  a  piece  of  exqui- 
site mosaic.  The  brilliant  statistician  who  fills  the 
post  of  registrar-general  to  the  colony,  had  the  im- 
mense advantage  of  starting  clear  of  all  tradition,  un- 
hampered and  unclogged ;  and,  as  the  governments  of 
the  other  colonies  have  of  the  last  few  years  taken 
Victoria  for  model,  a  gradual  approach  is  being  made 
to  uniformity  of  system.  '  It  was  not  too  soon,  for 
British  colonial  statistics  are  apt  to  be  confusing.  I 
have  seen  a  list  of  imposts,  in  which  one  class  consisted 
of  ale,  aniseed,  arsenic,  assafoetida,  and  astronomical 
instruments;  boots,  bullion,  and  salt  butter;  capers, 
cards,  caraway  seed;  gauze,  gin,  glue,  and  gloves; 
maps  and  manure;  philosophical  instruments  and  salt 
pork;  sandal-wood,  sarsaparilla,  and  smoked  sausages. 
Alphabetical  arrangement  has  charms  for  the  official 
mind. 

Statistics  are  generally  considered  dull  enough,  but 
the  statistics  of  these  young  countries  are  figure- 
poems.  Tables  that  in  England  contrast  jute  with 
hemp,  or  this  man  with  that  man,  here  compare  the 
profits  of  manufactures  with  those  of  agriculture,  or 
pit  against  each  other,  the  powers  of  race  and  race. 

Victoria  is  the  only  country  in  existence  which  pos- 
sesses a  statistical  history  from  its  earliest  birth ;  but, 
after  all,  even  Victoria  falls  short  of  Minnesota,  where 
the  settlers  founded  the  "  State  Historical  Society"  a 
week  before  the  foundation  of  the  State. 

Gold,  wheat,  sheep,  are  the  three  great  staples  of 
Victoria,  and  have  each  its  party,  political  and  com- 


VICTORIA.  27 

mercial — diggers,  agricultural  settlers,  and  squatters — 
though  of  late  the  diggers  and  the  landed  democracy 
have  made  common  cause  against  the  squatters.  Gold 
can  now  be  studied  best  at  JBallarat,  and  wheat  at 
Clunes,  or  upon  the  Barrabool  hills  behind  Geelong; 
but  I  started  fa'rst  for  Echuca,  the  headquarters  of  the 
squatter  interest,  and  metropolis  of  sheep,  taking  upon 
my  way  Kyneton,  one  of  the  richest  agricultural  dis- 
tricts of  the  colony,  and  also  the  once  famous  gold  dig- 
gings of  Bendigo  Creek. 

Between  Melbourne  and  Kyneton,  where  I  made 
my  first  halt,  the  railway  runs  through  undulating 
lightly-timbered  tracks,  free  from  underwood,  and  well 
grassed.  By  letting  my  eyes  persuade  me  that  the 
burnt-up  herbage  was  a  ripening  crop  of  wheat  or  oats, 
I  found  a  likeness  to  the  views  in  the  weald  of  Sussex, 
though  the  foliage  of  the  gums,  or  eucalypti,  is  thinner 
than  that  of  the  English  oaks. 

Riding  from  Kyneton  to  Carlsruhe,  Pastoria,  and 
the  foot  hills  of  the  "  Dividing  Range,"  I  found  the 
agricultural  community  busily  engaged  upon  the  har- 
vest, and  much  excited  upon  the  great  thistle  question. 
"Women  and  tiny  children  were  working  in  the  fields, 
while  the  men  were  at  Kyneton,  trying  in  vain  to  hire 
the  harvest  hands  from  Melbourne  at  less  than  £2  10s. 
or  £3  a  week  and  board.  The  thistle  question  was  not 
less  serious;  the  "thistle  inspectors,"  elected  under 
the  "  Thistle  Prevention  Act,"  had  commenced  their 
labors,  and  although  each  man  agreed  with  his  friend 
that  his  neighbor's  thistles  were  a  nuisance,  still  he  did 
not  like  being  fined  for  not  weeding  out  his  own.  The 
fault,  they  say,  lies  in  the  climate ;  it  is  too  good,  and 
the  English  seeds  have  thriven.  Great  as  was  the 
talk  of  thistles,  the  fields  in  the  fertile  Kyneton  dis- 
trict were  as  clean  as  in  a  well-kept  English  farm,  and 


28  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

showed  the  clearest  signs  of  the  small  farmer's  personal 
care. 

Every  one  of  the  agricultural  villages  in  Australia 
that  I  visited  was  a  full-grown  municipality.  The  col- 
onial English,  freed  from  the  checks  which  are  put  by 
interested  landlords  to  local  government  in  Britain, 
have  passed  in  all  the  settlements  laws  under  which 
any  village  must  be  raised  into  a  municipality  on  fifty 
of  the  villagers  (the  number  varies  in  the  different  col- 
onies) signing  a  requisition,  unless  within  a  given  time 
a  larger  number  sign  a  petition  to  the  contrary  effect. 

After  a  short  visit  to  the  bustling  digging  town  of 
Castlemaine,  I  pushed  on  by  train  to  Sandhurst,  a  town 
of  great  pretensions,  which  occupies  the  site  of  the 
former  digging  camp  at  Bendigo.  On  a  level  part  of 
the  line  between  the  two  great  towns,  my  train  dashed 
through  some  closed  gates,  happily  without  hurt.  The 
Melbourne  Argus  of  the  next  day  said  that  the  crash  had 
been  the  result  of  the  signalman  taking  the  fancy  that 
the  trains  should  wait  on  him,  not  he  upon  the  trains, 
so  he  had  "  closed  the  gates,  hoisted  the  danger  signal, 
and  adjourned  to  a  neighboring  store  to  drink."  On 
my  return  from  Echuca,  I  could  not  find  that  he  had 
been  dismissed. 

When  hands  are  scarce,  and  lives  valuable  not  to 
the  possessor  only,  but  to  the  whole  community,  care 
to  avoid  accidents  might  be  expected ;  but  there  is  a 
certain  recklessness  in  all  young  countries,  and  not 
even  in  Kansas  is  it  more  observable  than  in  Victoria 
and  New  South  Wales. 

Sandhurst,  like  Castlemaine,  straggles  over  hill  and 
dale  for  many  miles,  the  diggers  following  the  gold- 
leads,  and  building  a  suburb  by  each  alluvial  mine, 
rather  than  draw  their  supplies  from  the  central  spot. 
The  extent  of  the  worked-out  gold  field  struck  me  as 


VICTORIA.  29 

greater  than  the  fields  round  Placerville,  but  then  in 
California  many  of  the  old  diggings  are  hidden  by  the 
vines. 

In  Sandhurst  I  could  find  none  of  the  magnificent 
restaurants  of  Virginia  City;  none  of  the  gambling 
saloons  of  Hokitika ;  and  the  only  approach  to  gayety 
among  the  diggers  was  made  in  a  drinking-hall,  where 
some  dozen  red-shirted,  bearded  men  were  dancing  by 
turns  with  four  well-behaved  and  quiet-looking  German 
girls,  who  were  paid,  the  constable  at  the  gate  informed 
me,  by  the  proprietor  of  the  booth.  My  hotel — "The 
Shamrock" — kept  by  New  York  Irish,  was  a  thor- 
oughly American  house ;  but,  then,  digger  civilization 
is  everywhere  American — a  fact  owing,  no  doubt,  to 
the  American  element  having  been  predominant  in 
the  first-discovered  diggings — those  of  California. 

Digger  revolts  must  have  been  feared  when  the 
Sandhurst  Government  Reserve  was  surrounded  with 
a  ditch  strangely  like  a  moat,  and  palings  that  bear  an 
ominous  resemblance  to  a  Maori  pah.  In  the  morn- 
ing I  found  my  way  through  the  obstructions,  and  dis- 
covered the  police  station,  and  in  it  the  resident  magis- 
trate, to  whom  I  had  a  letter.  He  knew  nothing  of 
"  Gumption  Dick,"  Hank  Monk's  friend,  but  he  intro- 
duced me  to  his  intelligent  Chinese  clerk,  and  told  me 
many  things  about  the  yellow  diggers.  The  bad  feel- 
ing between  the  English  diggers  and  the  Chinese  has 
not  in  the  least  died  out.  Upon  the  worked-out  fields  of 
Castlemaine  and  Sandhurst,  the  latter  have  things  their 
own  way,  and  I  saw  hundreds  of  them  washing  quietly 
and  quickly  in  the  old  Bendigo  Creek,  finding  an  ample 
living  in  the  leavings  of  the  whites.  So  successful  have 
they  been  that  a  few  Europeans  have  lately  been  taking 
to  their  plan,  and  an  old  Frenchman  who  died  here 

3* 


30  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

lately,  and  who,  from  his  working  persistently  in  worn- 
out  fields,  had  always  been  thought  to  be  a  harmless 
idiot,  left  behind  him  a  fortune  of  twenty  thousand 
pounds,  obtained  by  washing  in  company  with  the 
Chinese. 

The  spirit  that  called  into  existence  the  Ballarat 
anti-Chinese  mobs  is  not  extinct  in  Queensland,  as  I 
found  during  my  stay  at  Sydney.  At  the  Crocodile 
Creek  diggings  in  Northern  Queensland,  whither  many 
of  the  Chinese  from  New  South  Wales  have  lately 
gone,  terrible  riots  occurred  the  week  after  I  landed 
in  Australia.  The  English  diggers  announced  their 
intention  of  "rolling  up"  the  Chinese,  and  proceeded 
to  "jump  their  claims" — that  is,  trespass  on  the  mining 
plots,  for  in  Queensland  the  Chinese  have  felt  them- 
selves strong  enough  to  purchase  claims.  The  Chinese 
bore  the  robbery  for  some  days,  but  at  last  a  digger 
who  had  sold  them  a  claim  for  X50  one  morning, 
hammered  the  pegs  into  the  soft  ground  the  same 
day,  and  then  jumped  the  claim  on  the  pretense  that 
it  was  not  "pegged  out."  This  was  too  much  for  the 
Chinese  owner,  who  tomahawked  the  digger  on  the 
spot.  The  English  at  once  fired  the  Chinese  town, 
and  even  attacked  the  English  driver  of  a  coach  for 
conveying  Chinamen  on  his  vehicle.  Some  diggers 
in  North  Queensland  are  said  to  have  kept  blood- 
hounds for  the  purpose  of  hunting  Chinamen  for  sport, 
as  the  rowdies  of  the  old  country  hunt  cats  with 
terriers. 

On  the  older  gold  fields,  such  as  those  of  Sandhurst 
and  Castlemaine,  the  hatred  of  the  English  for  the 
Chinese  lies  dormant,  but  it  is  not  the  less  strong  for 
being  free  from  physical  violence.  The  woman  in  a 
baker's  shop  near  Sandhurst,  into  which  I  went  to  buy 
a  roll  for  lunch,  shuddered  when  she  told  me  of  one 


VICTORIA.  31 

or  two  recent  marriages  between  Irish  " Biddies"  and 
some  of  the  wealthiest  Chinese. 

The  man  against  whom  all  this  hatred  and  suspicion 
is  directed  is  no  ill-conducted  rogue  or  villain.  The 
chief  of  the  police  at  Sandhurst  tells  me  that  the  Chi- 
nese are  "the  best  of  citizens;"  a  member  of  the  Vic- 
torian Parliament,  resident  in  the  very  edge  of  their 
quarter  at  Geelong,  spoke  of  the  yellow  men  to  me  as 
"  well-behaved  and  frugal;"  the  registrar-general  told 
me  that  there  is  less  crime,  great  or  small,  among  the 
Chinese,  than  among  any  equal  number  of  English  in 
the  colony. 

The  Chinese  are  not  denied  civil  rights  in  Victoria, 
as  they  have  been  in  California.  Their  testimony  is 
accepted  in  the  courts  against  that  of  whites ;  they 
may  become  naturalized,  and  then  can  vote.  Some 
twenty  or  thirty  of  them,  out  of  30,000,  have  been 
naturalized  in  Victoria  up  to  the  present  time. 

That  the  Chinese  in  Australia  look  upon  their  stay 
in  the  gold  fields  as  merely  temporary  is  clear  from 
the  character  of  their  restaurants,  which  are  singularly 
inferior  to  those  of  San  Francisco.  The  best  in  the 
colonies  is  one  near  Castlemaine,  but  even  this  is  small 
and  poor.  Shark's  fin  is  an  unheard-of  luxury,  and 
even  puppy  you  would  have  to  order.  "  Silk-worms 
fried  in  castor  oil"  is  the  colonial  idea  of  a  Chinese 
delicacy ;  yet  the  famous  sea-slug  is  an  inhabitant  of 
Queensland  waters,  and  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria. 

From  Sandhurst  northward,  the  country,  known  as 
Elysium  Flats,  becomes  level,  and  is  wooded  in  patches, 
like  the  "  oak-op  en  ing"  prairies  of  Wisconsin  and  Illi- 
nois. When  within  fifty  miles  of  Echuca,  the  line 
comes  out  of  the  forest  on  to  a  vast  prairie,  across  which 
I  saw  a  marvelous  mirage  of  water  and  trees  on  various 
step-like  levels.  From  the  other  window  of  the  com- 


32  ORE  ATE  E   BRITAIN. 

partment  carriage  (sadly  hot  and  airless  after  the  Amer- 
ican cars),  I  saw  the  thin  dry  yellow  grass  on  fire  for 
a  dozen  miles.  The  smoke  from  these  "  bush-fires" 
sometimes  extends  for  hundreds  of  miles  to  sea.  In 
steaming  down  from  Sydney  to  Wilson's  Promontory 
on  my  way  to  Melbourne,  we  passed  through  a  column 
of  smoke  about  a  mile  in  width  when  off  Wolongong, 
near  Botany  Bay,  and  never  lost  sight  of  it,  as  it  lay  in 
a  dense  brown  mass  upon  the  sea,  until  we  rounded 
Cape  Howe,  two  hundred  miles  farther  to  the  south- 
ward. 

The  fires  on  these  great  plains  are  caused  by  the 
dropping  of  fusees  by  travelers  as  they  ride  along  smok- 
ing their  pipes  Australian  fashion,  or  else  by  spreading 
of  the  fires  from  their  camps.  The  most  ingenious 
stories  are  invented  by  the  colonists  to  prevent  us  from 
throwing  doubt  upon  their  carefulness,  and  I  was  told 
at  Echuca  that  the  late  fires  had  been  caused  by  the 
concentration  of  the  sun's  rays  upon  spots  of  grass 
owing  to  the  accidental  conversion  into  burning-glasses 
of  beer-bottles  that  had  been  suffered  to  lie  about. 
Whatever  their  cause,  the  fires,  in  conjunction  with 
the  heat,  have  made  agricultural  settlement  upon  the 
Murray  a  lottery.  The  week  before  my  visit,  some 
ripe  oats  at  Echuca  had  been  cut  down  to  stubble  by 
the  hot  wind,  and  farmers  are  said  to  count  upon  the 
success  of  only  one  harvest  in  every  three  seasons.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Victorian  apricots,  shriveled  by 
the  hot  wind,  are  so  many  lumps  of  crystallized  nectar 
when  you  pierce  their  thick  outer  coats. 

Defying  the  sun,  I  started  off  to  the  banks  of  the 
Murray  River,  not  without  some  regret  at  the  absence 
of  the  continuous  street  verandas  which  in  Melbourne 
form  a  first  step  toward  the  Italian  piazza.  One  may 
be  deceived  by  trifles  when  the  character  of  an  unknown 


VIC  TOE  I  A.  33 

region  is  at  stake.  Before  reaching  the  country,  I  had 
read,  "  Steam-packet  Hotel,  Esplanade,  Echuca;"  and, 
though  experiences  on  the  Ohio  had  taught  me  to  put 
no  trust  in  "packets,"  yet  I  had  somehow  come  to  the 
belief  that  the  Murray  must  be  a  second  Missouri  at 
least,  if  not  an  Upper  Mississippi.  The  "  Esplanade" 
I  found  to  be  a  myth,  and  the  "  fleet"  of  "steam- 
packets"  were  drawn  up  in  a  long  line  upon  the  mud, 
there  being  in  this  summer  weather  no  water  in  which 
they  could  float.  The  Murray  in  February  is  a  stream- 
less  ditch,  which  in  America,  if  known  and  named  at 
all,  would  rank  as  a  tenth-rate  river. 

The  St.  Lawrence  is  2200  miles  in  length,  and  its 
tributary,  the  Ottawa,  1000  miles  in  length,  itself  re- 
ceives a  tributary  stream,  the  Gatineau,  with  a  course 
of  420  miles.  At  217  miles  from  its  confluence  with 
the  Ottawa  the  Gatineau  is  still  1000  feet  in  width.  At 
Albury,  which  even  in  winter  is  the  head  of  navigation 
on  the  Murray,  you  are  only  some  600  or  700  miles  by 
river  from  the  open  sea,  or  about  the  same  distance  as 
from  Memphis  in  Tennessee  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. 

During  six  months  of  the  year,  however,  the  Mur- 
ray is  for  wool-carrying  purposes  an  important  river. 
The  railway  to  Echuca  has  tapped  the  river  system  in 
the  Victorians'  favor,  and  Melbourne  has  become  the 
port  of  the  back  country  of  New  South  Wales,  and 
even  Queensland.  "The  Riverina  is  commercially 
annexed"  to  Victoria,  said  the  premier  of  New  South 
Wales  while  I  was  in  that  colony,  and  the  "Riverina" 
means  that  portion  of  New  South  Wales  which  lies 
between  the  Lachlan,  the  Murrumbidgee,  and  the 
Murray,  to  the  northward  of  Echuca. 

Returning  to  the  inn  to  escape  the  sun,  I  took  up 
the  Riverina  Herald,  published  at  Echuca;  of  its  twenty- 


34  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

four  columns,  nineteen  and  a  half  are  occupied  by  the 
eternal  sheep  in  one  shape  or  another.  A  representa- 
tion of  Jason's  fleece  stands  at  the  head  of  the  title ; 
"wool"  is  the  first  word  in  the  first  line  of  the  body  of 
the  paper.  More  than  half  of  the  advertisements  are 
those  of  wool  brokers,  or  else  of  the  fortunate  posses- 
sors of  specifics  that  will  cure  the  scab.  One  disin- 
fectant compound  is  certified  to  by  no  less  than  seven- 
teen inspectors;  another  is  puffed  by  a  notice  informing 
flock-masters  that,  in  cases  of  foot-rot,  the  advertiser 
goes  upon  the  principle  of  "no  cure,  no  pay."  One 
firm  makes  "  liberal  advances  on  the  ensuing  clip ;" 
another  is  prepared  to  do  the  like  upon  "pastoral  secu- 
rities." Sheep-chandlers,  regardless  of  associations, 
advertise  in  one  line  their  bread  and  foot-rot  ointment, 
their  biscuit  and  sheep-wash  solution;  and  the  last  of 
the  advertisements  upon  the  front  page  is  that  of  an 
"agent  for  the  sale  of  fat."  The  body  of  the  paper 
contains  complaints  against  the  judges  at  a  recent  show 
of  wool,  and  an  account  of  the  raising  of  a  sawyer  "  120 
feet  in  length  and  33  feet  in  girth"  by  the  new  "snag- 
boat"  working  to  clear  out  the  river  for  the  floating 
down  of  the  next  wool  clip.  Whole  columns  of  small 
type  are  filled  with  "impounding"  lists,  containing 
brief  descriptions  of  all  the  strayed  cattle  of  each  dis- 
trict. The  technicalities  of  the  distinctive  marks  are 
surprising.  Who  not  to  the  manner  born  can  make 
much  of  this:  "Blue  and  white  cow,  cock  horns,  22 
off-rump,  IL  off-ribs?"  or  of  this:  " Strawberry  stag, 
top  off  off-ear,  J.  C.  over  4  off-rump,  like  H.  G.  con- 
joined near  loin  and  rump?"  This,  again,  is  difficult: 
"Swallow  tail,  off  ear,  (j  and  illegible  over  F  off-ribs, 
PT  off-rump."  What  is  a  "blue  strawberry  bull?"  is 
a  question  which  occurred  to  me.  Again,  what  a  phe- 
nomenon i&  this :  "  White  cow,  writing  capital  A  off- 


VICTORIA.  35 

shoulder?"  A  paragraph  relates  the  burning  of 
"<£10,000  worth  of  country  near  Gambler,"  and  adver- 
tisements of  Colt's  revolvers  and  quack  medicines 
complete  the  sheet.  The  paper  shows  that  for  the 
most  part  the  colonists  here,  as  in  ~New  Zealand,  have 
had  the  wisdom  to  adopt  the  poetic  native  names  of 
places,  and  even  to  use  them  for  towns,  streets,  and 
ships.  Of  the  Panama  liners,  the  Rahaia  and  Maitoura 
bear  the  names  of  rivers,  the  Rechine  and  the  Kaikoura, 
names  of  mountain  ranges;  and  the  colonial  boats 
have  for  the  most  part  familiar  Maori  or  Australian 
names ;  for  instance,  Hangitoto,  "  hill  of  hills,"  and 
Rangitiri,  "great  and  good."  The  New  Zealand  col- 
onists are  better  off  than  the  Australian  in  this  respect  : 
Wongawonga,  Yarrayarra,  and  Wooloomooloo  are  not 
inviting;  and  some  of  the  Australian  villagers  have 
still  stranger  names.  Nindooinbah  is  a  station  in  south- 
ern Queensland;  Yallack-a-yallack,Borongorong,  Bun- 
duramongee,  Jabbarabbara,  Thuroroolong,  Yalla-y- 
poora,  Yanac-a-Yanac,  Wuid  Kerruick,  Woolongu- 
woong-wrinan,  Woori  Yalloak,  and  Borhoneyghurk, 
are  stations  in  Victoria.  The  only  leader  in  the  Herald 
is  on  the  meat  question,  but  there  is  in  a  letter  an  ac- 
count of  the  Christmas  festivities  at  Melbourne,  which 
contains  much  merry-making  at  the  expense  of  "  unac- 
climatized  new  chums,"  as  fresh  comers  to  the  col- 
onies are  called.  The  writer  speaks  rapturously  of  the 
rush  on  Christmas-day  from  the  hot,  dry,  dusty  streets 
to  the  "golden  fields  of  waving  corn."  The  " exposed 
nature  of  the  Royal  Park"  prevented  many  excursion- 
ists from  picnicking  there,  as  they  had  intended;  but 
we  read  on,  and  find  that  the  exposure  dreaded  was 
not  to  cold,  but  to  the  terrible  hot  wind  which  swept 
from  the  plains  of  the  northwest,  and  scorched  up 
every  blade  of  grass,  every  green  thing,  in  the  open 


36  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

spots.  We  hear  of  Christmas  dinners  eaten  upon  the 
grass  at  Bichmond,  in  the  sheltered  shade  of  the  gum- 
forest,  but  in  the  botanical  gardens  the  "plants  had 
been  much  affected  by  the  trying  heat."  However, 
"  the  weather  on  boxing-day  was  somewhat  more  favor- 
able for  open-air  enjoyment,"  as  the  thermometer  was 
only  98°  in  the  shade. 

Will  ever  New  Zealand  or  Australian  bard  spring 
up  to  write  of  the  pale  primroses  that  in  September 
commence  to  peep  out  from  under  the  melting  snows, 
and  to  make  men  look  forward  to  the  blazing  heat  and 
the  long  December  days  ?  Strangely  enough,  the  only 
English  poem  which  an  Australian  lad  can  read  with- 
out laughing  at  the  old  country  conceit  that  connects 
frosts  with  January,  and  hot  weather  with  July,  is 
Thomson's  "Seasons,"  for  in  its  long  descriptions  of 
the  changes  in  England  from  spring  to  summer,  from 
autumn  to  winter,  a  month  is  only  once  named:  " rosy- 
footed  May"  cannot  be  said  to  "steal  blushing  on"  in 
Australia,  where  May  answers  to  our  November. 

In  the  afternoon,  I  ventured  out  again,  and  strolled 
into  the  gum-forest  on  the  banks  of  the  Campaspe 
River,  not  believing  the  reports  of  the  ferocity  of  the 
Victorian  bunyips  and  alligators  which  have  lately 
scared  the  squatters  who  dwelt  on  creeks.  The  black 
trees,  relieved  upon  a  ground  of  white  dust  and  yellow 
grass,  were  not  inviting,  and  the  scorching  heat  soon 
taught  me  to  hate  the  shadeless  boughs  and  ragged 
bark  of  the  inevitable  gum.  It  had  not  rained  for 
nine  weeks  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  and  the  ther- 
mometer (in  the  wind)  reached  116°  in  the  shade,  but 
there  was  nothing  oppressive  in  the  heat ;  it  seemed 
only  to  dry  up  the  juices  of  the  frame,  and  dazzle  you 
with  intense  brightness.  I  soon  came  to  agree  with  a 
newly-landed  Irish  gardener,  who  told  a  friend  of  mine 


VICTORIA.  37 

that  Australia  was  a  strange  country,  for  he  could  not 
see  that  the  thermometer  had  "the  slightest  effect 
upon  the  heat."  The  blaze  is  healthy,  and  fevers  are 
unknown  in  the  Riverina,  decay  of  noxious  matter, 
animal  or  vegetable,  being  arrested  during  summer  by 
the  drought.  This  is  a  hot  year,  for  on  the  12th  of 
January  the  thermometer,  even  at  the  Melbourne  Ob- 
servatory, registered  108°  in  the  shade,  and  123°  in  the 
shade  was  registered  at  Wentworth,  near  the  confluence 
of  the  Murray  and  the  Darling. 

As  the  afternoon  drew  on,  and,  if  not  the  heat,  at 
least  the  sun  declined,  the  bell-birds  ceased  their  tune- 
ful chiming,  and  the  forest  was  vocal  only  with  the 
ceaseless  chirp  of  the  tree-cricket,  whose  note  recalled 
the  goatsucker  of  our  English  woods.  The  Australian 
landscapes  show  best  by  the  red  light  of  the  hot 
weather  sunsets,  when  the  dark  feathery  foliage  of  the 
gum-trees  comes  out  in  exquisite  relief  upon  the  fiery 
fogs  that  form  the  sky,  and  the  yellow  earth  gaining  a 
tawny  hue  in  the  lurid  glare,  throws  off  a  light  resem- 
bling that  which  in  winter  is  reflected  from  our  English 
snows.  At  sunset  there  was  a  calm,  but,  as  I  turned 
to  walk  homeward,  the  hot  wind  sprang  up,  and  died 
again,  while  the  trees  sighed  themselves  uneasily  to 
sleep,  as  though  fearful  of  to-morrow's  blast. 

A  night  of  heavy  heat  was  followed  by  a  breathless 
dawn,  and  the  scorching  sun  returned  in  all  its  red- 
ness to  burn  up  once  more  the  earth,  not  cooled  from 
the  glare  of  yesterday.  Englishmen  must  be  bribed 
by  enormous  gains  before  they  will  work  with  con- 
tinuous toil  in  such  a  climate,  however  healthy. 


VOL.  II. 


38  GREATER    BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SQITATTER  ARISTOCRACY. 

"WHAT  is  a  Colonial  Conservative  ?"  is  a  question 
that  used  to  be  daily  put  to  a  Victorian  friend  of  mine 
when  he  was  in  London.  His  answer,  he  told  me,  was 
always,  "A  statesman  who  has  got  four  of  the  'points' 
of  the  People's  Charter,  and  wants  to  conserve  them," 
but  as  used  in  Victoria,  the  term  "  Conservative"  ex- 
presses the  feeling  less  of  a  political  party  than  of  the 
whole  of  the  people  who  have  anything  whatever  to 
lose.  Those  who  have  something  object  to  giving  a 
share  in  the  government  to  those  who  have  nothing ; 
those  who  have  much,  object  to  political  equality  with 
those  who  have  less;  and,  not  content  with  having  won 
a  tremendous  victory  in  basing  the  Upper  House  upon 
a  £5000  qualification  and  £100  freehold  or  £300  lease- 
hold franchise,  the  plutocracy  are  meditating  attacks 
upon  the  Legislative  Assembly. 

The  democracy  hold  out  undauntedly,  refusing  all 
monetary  tests,  though  an  intelligence  basis  for  the 
franchise  is  by  no  means  out  of  favor,  except  with  the 
few  who  cannot  read  or  write.  One  day,  when  I  was 
driving  from  Melbourne  to  Sandridge,  in  company  with 
a  colonial  merchant,  he  asked  our  car-driver:  "Now, 
tell  me  fairly:  do  you  think  these  rogues  of  fellows 
that  hang  about  the  shore  here  ought  to  have  votes?" 
"No,  I  don't."  "Ah,  you'd  like  to  see  a  5s.  fee  on 
registration,  wouldn't  you  ?"  The  answer  was  sharp 


SQUATTER  ARISTOCRACY.  39 

enough  in  its  tone.  "  Five  shillings  would  be  nothing 
to  you;  it  would  be  something  to  me,  and  it  would  be 
more  than  my  brother  could  pay.  What  I'd  have 
done  would  be  to  say  that  those  who  couldn't  read 
shouldn't  vote,  that's  all.  That  would  keep  out  the 
loafers." 

The  plutocratic  party  is  losing,  not  gaining,  ground 
in  Victoria ;  it  is  far  more  likely  that  the  present  gen- 
eration will  see  the  Upper  House  abolished  than  that 
it  will  witness  the  introduction  of  restrictions  upon  the 
manhood  suffrage  which  exists  for  the  Lower ;  but 
there  is  one  branch  of  the  plutocracy  which  actively 
carries  on  the  light  in  all  the  colonies,  and  which  claims 
to  control  society,  the  pastoral  tenants  of  crown  lands, 
or  Squatter  Aristocracy. 

The  word  "squatter"  has  undergone  a  remarkable 
change  of  meaning  since  the  time  when  it  denoted 
those  who  stole  government  land,  and  built  their 
dwellings  on  it.  As  late  as  1837,  squatters  were  de- 
fined by  the  chief  justice  of  New  South  Wales  as 
people  occupying  lands  without  legal  title,  and  who 
were  subject  to  a  fine  on  discovery.  They  were  de- 
scribed as  living  by  bartering  rum  with  convicts  for 
stolen  goods,  and  as  being  themselves  invariably  con- 
victs or  "  expirees." 

Escaping  suddenly  from  these  low  associations,  the 
word  came  to  be  applied  to  graziers  who  drove  their 
fiocks  into  the  unsettled  interior,  and  thence  to  those 
of  them  who  received  leases  from  the  crown  of  pas- 
toral lands. 

The  squatter  is  the  nabob  of  Melbourne  and  Sydney, 
the  inexhaustible  mine  of  wealth.  He  patronizes  balls, 
promenade  concerts,  flower-shows;  he  is  the  mainstay 
of  the  great  clubs,  the  joy  of  the  shopkeepers,  the  good 
angel  of  the  hotels ;  without  him  the  opera  could  not 


40  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

be  kept  up,  and  the  jockey-clubs  would  die  a  natural 
death. 

Neither  squatters  nor  townsfolk  will  admit  that  this 
view  of  the  former's  position  is  exactly  correct.  The 
Victorian  squatters  tell  you  that  they  have  been  ruined 
by  confiscation,  but  that  their  neighbors-  in  New  South 
Wales,  who  have  leases,  are  more  prosperous ;  in  New 
South  Wales  they  tell  you  of  the  destruction  of  the 
squastters  by  "  free  selection,"  of  which  there  is  none 
in  Queensland,  "the  squatter's  paradise;"  but  in 
Queensland  the  squatters  protest  that  they  have  never 
made  wages  for  their  personal  work,  far  less  interest 
upon  their  capital.  "  Not  one  of  us  in  ten  is  solvent," 
they  say. 

As  sweeping  assertions  are  made  by  the  townsfolk 
upon  the  other  side.  The  squatters,  they  sometimes 
say,  may  well  set  up  to  be  a  great  landed  aristocracy, 
for  they  have  every  fault  of  a  dominant  caste  except 
its  generous  vices.  They  are  accused  of  piling  up  vast 
hoards  of  wealth  while  living  a  most  penurious  life, 
and  contributing  less  than  would  so  many  mechanics 
to  the  revenue  of  the  country,  in  order  that  they  may 
return  in  later  life  to  England,  there  to  spend  what 
they  have  wrung  from  the  soil  of  Victoria  or  New 
South  Wales. 

The  occupation  of  the  whole  of  the  crown  lands  by 
squatters  has  prevented  the  making  of  railways  to  be 
paid  for  in  land  on  the  American  system ;  but  the 
chief  of  all  the  evils  connected  with  squatting  is  the 
tendency  to  the  accumulation  in  a  few  hands  of  all  the 
land  and  all  the  pastoral  wealth  of  the  country,  an 
extreme  danger  in  the  face  of  democratic  institutions, 
such  as  those  of  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales.  Re- 
membering that  manufactures  are  few,  the  swelling  of 
the  cities  shows  how  the  people  have  been  kept  from 


SQUATTER  ARISTOCRACY.  41 

the  land;  considerably  more  than  half  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Victoria  lives  within  the  corporate  towns. 

A  few  years  back,  a  thousand  men  held  between 
them,  on  nominal  rents,  forty  million  acres  out  of  the 
forty-three  and  a  half  million — mountain  and  swamp 
excluded — of  which  Victoria  consists.  It  is  true  that 
the  amount  so  held  has  now  decreased  to  thirty  mil- 
lion, but  on  the  other  hand  the  squatters  have  bought 
vast  tracts  which  were  formerly  within  their  "runs," 
with  the  capital  acquired  in  squatting,  and,  knowing 
the  country  better  than  others  could  possibly  know  it, 
have  naturally  selected  all  the  most  valuable  land. 

The  colonial  democracy  in  1860  and  the  succeeding 
years  rose  to  a  sense  of  its  danger  from  the  land 
monopoly,  and  began  to  search  about  for  means  to 
put  it  down,  and  to  destroy  at  the  same  time  the  sys- 
tem of  holding  from  the  crown,  for  it  is  singular  that 
while  in  England  there  seems  to  be  springing  up  a 
popular  movement  in  favor  of  the  nationalization  of 
the  land,  in  the  most  democratic  of  the  Australian^ 
colonies  the  tendency  is  from  crown  land  tenure  to 
individual  freehold  ownership  of  the  soil  rather  than 
the  other  way.  Yet  here  in  Victoria  there  was  a  free 
field  to  start  upon,  for  the  land  already  belonged  to 
the  State — the  first  of  the  principles  included  under 
the  phrase,  nationalized  land.  In  America,  again,  we 
see  that,  with  the  similar  advantage  of  State  posses- 
sion of  territories  which  are  still  fourteen  times  the 
size  of  the  French  Empire,  there  is  little  or  no  tend- 
ency toward  agitation  for  the  continuance  of  State 
ownership.  In  short,  freehold  ownership,  the  Saxon 
institution,  seems  dear  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  The 
national  land  plan  would  commend  itself  rather  to  the 
Celtic  races :  to  the  Highlander,  who  remembers  clan- 
ship, to  the  Irishman,  who  regrets  the  Sept. 

4* 


42  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Since  the  Radicals  have  been  in  power,  both  here 
and  in  New  South  Wales,  they  have  carried  act  after 
act  to  encourage  agricultural  settlers  on  freehold  tenure, 
at  the  expense  of  the  pastoral  squatters.  The  "free 
selection"  plan,  now  in  operation  in  New  South  "Wales, 
allows  the  agricultural  settler  to  buy,  but  at  a  fixed 
price,  the  freehold  of  a  patch  of  land,  provided  it  be 
over  forty  acres  and  less  than  820,  anywhere  he  pleases 
— even  in  the  middle  of  a  squatter's  "run,"  if  he  en- 
ters at  once,  and  commences  to  cultivate;  and  the  Land 
Act  of  1862  provides  that  the  squatting  license  system 
shall  entirely  end  with  the  year  1869.  Forgetting  that 
in  every  lease  the  government  reserved  the  power  of 
terminating  the  agreement  for  the  purpose  of  the  sale 
of  land,  the  squatters  complain  that  free  selection  is 
but  confiscation,  and  that  they  are  at  the  mercy  of  a 
pack  of  cattle-stealers  and  horse-thieves,  who  roam 
through  the  country  haunting  their  "runs"  like 
"ghosts,-"  taking  up  the  best  land  on  their  "runs," 
"  picking  the  eyes  out  of  the  land,"  turning  to  graze 
anywhere,  on  the  richest  grass,  the  sheep  and  cattle 
they  have  stolen  on  their  way.  The  best  of  them,  they 
say,  are  but  "  cockatoo  farmers,"  living  from  hand  to 
mouth  on  what  they  manage  to  grub  and  grow.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  "free  selection"  principle  "up 
country"  is  tempered  by  the  power  of  the  wealthy 
squatter  to  impound  the  cattle  of  the  poor  little  free- 
holder whenever  he  pleases  to  say  that  they  stray  on 
to  his  "run;"  indeed,  "Pound  them  off,  or  if  you 
can't,  buy  them  off,"  has  become  a  much  used  phrase. 
The  squatter,  too,  is  protected  in  Victoria  by  such  pro- 
visions as  that  "improvements"  by  him,  if  over  <£40  on 
forty  acres,  cover  an  acre  of  land  for  each  <£!.  The 
squatters  are  themselves  buying  largely  of  land,  and 
thus  profiting  by  the  free  selection.  To  a  stranger  it 


SQUATTER  ARISTOCRACY.  43 

seems  as  though  the  interests  of  the  squatter  have  been 
at  least  sufficiently  cared  for,  remembering  the  vital 
necessity  for  immediate  action.  In  1865,  Victoria, 
small  as  she  is,  had  not  sold  a  tenth  of  her  land. 

In  her  free  selectors,  Victoria  will  gain  a  class  of 
citizens  whose  political  views  will  contrast  sharply 
with  the  strong  anti-popular  sentiments  of  the  squat- 
ters, and  who,  instead  of  spending  their  lives  as  ab- 
sentees, will  stay,  they  and  their  children,  upon  the 
land,  and  spend  all  they  make  within  the  colony,  while 
their  sons  add  to  its  laboring  arms. 

Since  land  has  been,  even  to  a  limited  extent,  thrown 
open,  Victoria  has  suddenly  ceased  to  be  a  wheat-im- 
porting, and  become  a  wheat-exporting  country,  and 
flourishing  agricultural  communities,  such  as  those  of 
Ceres,  Clunes,  Kyneton,  are  springing  up  on  every 
side,  growing  wheat  instead  of  wool,  while  the  wide 
extension  which  has  in  Victoria  been  given  to  the 
principle  of  local  self-government  in  the  shape  of  shire- 
councils,  road-boards,  and  village-municipalities  allows 
of  the  junction  in  a  happy  country  of  the  whole  of  the 
advantages  of  small  and  great  farming,  under  the  un- 
equaled  system  of  small  holdings,  and  co-operation 
for  improvements  among  the  holders. 


44  GREATER   BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    V. 

COLONIAL   DEMOCRACY. 

PAYMENT  of  members  by  the  State  was  the  great 
question  under  debate  in  the  Lower  House  during 
much  of  the  time  I  spent  in  Melbourne,  and,  in  spite 
of  all  the  efforts  of  the  Victorian  democracy,  the  bill 
was  lost.  The  objection  taken  at  home,  that  payment 
degrades  the  House  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  could 
never  arise  in  a  new  country,  where  a  practical  nation 
looks  at  the  salaries  as  payment  for  work  done,  and 
obstinately  refuses  to  believe  in  the  work  being  done 
without  payment  in  some  shape  or  other.  In  these 
colonies,  the  reasons  in  favor  of  payment  are  far 
stronger  than  they  are  in  Canada  or  America,  for  while 
their  country  or  town  share  equally  the  difficulties  of 
finding  representatives  who  will  consent  to  travel  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  miles  to  Ottawa  or  Washing- 
ton, in  the  Australias  Parliament  sits  in  towns  which 
contain  from  one-sixth  to  one-fourth  of  the  whole 
population,  and  under  a  non-payment  system  power  is 
thrown  entirely  into  the  hands  of  Melbourne,  Sydney, 
Perth,  Brisbane,  Adelaide,  and  Hobarton.  Not  only 
do  these  cities  return  none  but  their  own  citizens,  but 
the  country  districts,  often  unable  to  find  within  their 
limits  men  who  have  the -time  and  money  to  make 
them  able  to  attend  throughout  the  sessions  at  the 
capital,  elect  the  city  traders  to  represent  them. 

Payment  of  members  was  met  by  a  proposition  on 


COLONIAL  DEMOCRACY.  45 

the  part  of  the  leader  of  the  squatter  party  in  the 
Upper  House  to  carry  it  through  that  assembly  if  the 
Lower  House  would  introduce  the  principle  of  per- 
sonal representation;  but  it  was  objected  that  under 
such  a  system  the  Catholics,  who  form  a  fifth  of  the 
population,  might,  if  they  chose,  return  a  fifth  of  the 
members.  That  they  ought  to  be  able  to  do  so  never 
seemed  to  strike  friend  or  foe.  The  Catholics,  who 
had  a  long  turn  of  power  under  the  O'Shaughnessey 
government,  were  finally  driven  out  for  appointing 
none  but  Irishmen  to  the  police.  "I  always  said  this 
ministry  would  go  out  on  the  back  of  a  policeman," 
was  the  comment  of  the  Opposition  wit.  The  present 
ministry,  which  is  Scotch  in  tone,  was  hoisted  into 
office  by  a  great  coalition  against  the  Irish  Catholics, 
of  whom  there  are  only  a  handful  in  the  House. 

The  subject  of  national  education,  which  was  before 
the  colony  during  my  visit,  also  brought  the  Catholics 
prominently  forward,  for  an  episcopal  pastoral  was 
read  in  all  their  churches  threatening  to  visit  ecclesi- 
astical censure  upon  Catholic  teachers  in  the  common 
schools,  and  upon  the  parents  of  the  children  who 
attend  them.  "  Godless  education"  is  as  little  popular 
here  as  it  used  to  be  at  home,  and  the  Anglican  and 
Catholic  clergymen  insist  that  it  is  proposed  to  make 
their  people  pay  heavily  for  an  education  in  which  it 
would  be  contrary  to  their  conscience  to  share;  but 
the  laymen  seem  less  distressed  than  their  pastors.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  reason  why  the  Catholic  bishop 
declined  to  be  examined  upon  the  Education  Com- 
mission was  that  he  was  afraid  of  this  question:  "Are 
you  aware  that  half  the  Catholic  children  in  the  coun- 
try are  attending  schools  which  you  condemn?" 

The  most  singular,  perhaps,  of  the  spectacles  pre- 
sented by  colonial  politics  during  my  visit  was  that  of 


46  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

the  Victorian  Upper  House  going  deliberately  into 
committee  to  consider  its  own  constitution,  with  the 
view  of  introducing  a  bill  for  its  own  reform,  or  to 
meditate,  its  enemies  said,  upon  self  -  destruction 
Whether  the  blow  comes  from  within  or  without, 
there  is  every  probability  that  the  Upper  House  will 
shortly  disappear,  and  the  advice  of  Milton  and 
Franklin  be  followed  in  having  but  a  single  chamber. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  this  step  will  be  followed  by 
the  demand  of  the  Victorians  to  be  allowed  to  choose 
their  own  governor,  subject  to  his  approval  by  the 
queen,  with  a  view  to  making  it  impossible  that 
needy  men  should  be  sent  out  to  suck  the  colony,  as 
they  sometimes  have  been  in  the  past.  The  Austra- 
lians look  upon  the  liberal  expenditure  of  a  governor 
as  their  own  liberality,  but  upon  meanness  on  his  part 
as  a  robbery  from  themselves. 

The  Victorian  have  a  singular  advantage  over  the 
American  democrats  as  being  unhampered  by  a  con- 
stitution of  antiquity  and  renown.  Constitution-tink- 
ering is  here  continual;  the  new  society  is  continually 
reshaping  its  political  institutions  to  keep  pace  with  the 
latest  developments  of  the  national  mind;  in  America, 
the  party  of  liberty,  at  this  moment  engaged  in  re- 
moulding the  worn-out  constitution  in  favor  of  free- 
dom, dares  not  even  yet  proclaim  that  the  national 
good  is  its  aim,  but  keeps  to  the  old  watchwords,  and 
professes  to  be  treading  in  the  footsteps  of  George 
Washington. 

The  tone  of  Victorian  democracy  is  not  American. 
There  is  the  defiant  way  of  taking  care  of  themselves 
and  ignoring  their  neighbors,  characteristic  of  the 
founders  of  English  plantations  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  ;  the  spirit  which  prompted  the  passing,  in  1852, 
of  the  act  prohibiting  the  admission  to  the  colony  of 


COLONIAL   DEMOCBACY.  47 

convicts  for  three  years  after  they  had  received  their 
pardons ;  but  the  English  race  here  is  not  Latinized  as 
it  is  in  America.  If  it  were,  Australian  democracy 
would  not  be  so  "shocking"  to  the  squatters.  De- 
mocracy, like  Mormonism,  would  be  nothing  if  found 
among  Frenchmen  or  people  with  black  faces,  but  it 
is  at  first  sight  very  terrible,  when  it  smiles  on  you 
from  between  a  pair  of  rosy  Yorkshire  cheeks. 

The  political  are  not  greater  than  the  social  differ- 
ences between  Australia  and  America.  Australian 
society  resembles  English  %iiddle-class  society;  the 
people  have,  in  matters  of  literature  and  religion,  tastes 
and  feelings  similar  to  those  which  pervade  such  com- 
munities as  those  of  Birmingham  or  Manchester.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  vices  of  America  are  those  of  aris- 
tocracies ;  her  virtues,  those  of  a  landed  republic.  Shop 
and  factory  are  still  in  the  second  rank;  wheat  and 
corn  still  the  prevailing  powers.  In  all  the  Australian 
colonies  land  is  coming  to  the  front  for  the  second 
time  under  a  system  of  small  holdings,  except  in  Queens- 
land, where  it  has  never  ceased  to  rule,  and  that  under 
an  oligarchic  form  of  society  and  government;  but  it 
is  doubtful  whether,  looking  to  the  size  of  Melbourne, 
the  landed  democracy  will  ever  outvote  the  townfolk 
in  Victoria. 

That  men  of  ability  and  character  are  proscribed  has 
been  one  of  the  charges  brought  against  colonial  de- 
mocracy. For  my  part,  I  found  gathered  in  Melbourne, 
at  the  University,  at  the  Observatory,  at  the  Botanical 
Garden,  and  at  the  government  offices,  men  of  the 
highest  scientific  attainments,  drawn  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  and  tempted  to  Australia  by  large  salaries 
voted  by  the  democracy.  The  statesmen  of  all  the 
colonies  are  well  worthy  of  the  posts  they  hold.  Mr. 
Macalister,  in  Queensland,  and  Mr.  Martin,  at  Sydney, 


48  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

are  excellent  debaters.  Mr.  Parkes,  whose  biography 
would  be  the  typical  history  of  a  successful  colonist, 
and  who  has  fought  his  way  up  from  the  position  of  a 
Birmingham  artisan  free-emigrant  to  that  of  Colonial 
Secretary  of  New  South  Wales,  is  an  extremely  able 
writer  and  deep  thinker.  The  business  powers  of  the 
present  Colonial  Treasurer  of  New  South  Wales  are 
remarkable ;  and  Mr.  Higinbotham,  the  Attorney- 
General  of  Victoria,  possesses  a  fund  of  experience  and 
a  power  of  foresight  which  it  would  be  hard  to  equal 
at  home.  Many  of  the  Ministers  in  all  the  colonies 
are  men  who  have  worked  themselves  up  from  the 
ranks,  and  it  is  amusing  to  notice  the  affected  horror 
with  which  their  antecedents  have  been  recalled  by 
those  who  have  brought  out  a  pedigree  from  the  old 
country.  A  government  clerk  in  one  of  the  colonies 
told  me  that  the  three  last  ministers  at  the  head  of  his 
department  had  been  "  so  low  in  the  social  scale,  that 
my  wife  could  not  visit  theirs." 

Class  animosity  and  political  feud  runs  much  higher, 
and  drives  its  roots  far  deeper  into  private  life  in  Vic- 
toria than  in  any  other  English-speaking  country  I  have 
seen.  Political  men  of  distinction  are  shunned  by  their 
opponents  in  the  streets  and  clubs ;  and,  instead  of  its 
being  possible  to  differ  on  politics  and  yet  continue 
friends,  as  in  the  old  country,  I  have  seen  men  in  Vic- 
toria refuse  to  sit  down  to  dinner  with  a  statesman 
from  whose  views  on  land  questions  they  happened  to 
dissent.  A  man  once  warned  me  solemnly  against 
dining  with  a  quiet  grave  old  gentleman,  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  "  a  most  dangerous  radical— a  perfect  fire- 
brand." 

Treated  in  this  way,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  demo- 
cratic ministers  and  members  stand  much  upon  their 
dignity,  and  colonial  Parliaments  are  in  fact  not  only 


COLONIAL   DEMOCRACY.  49 

as  haughty  as  the  parent  assembly  at  Westminster,  but 
often  assert  their  privileges  by  the  most  arbitrary  of 
means.  A  few  weeks  before  I  arrived  in  Melbourne, 
a  member  of  the  staff  of  the  Argus  newspaper  was  given 
up  by  the  proprietors  to  soothe  the  infuriated  Assembly. 
Having  got  him,  the  great  question  of  what  to  do  with 
him  arose,  and  he  was  placed  in  a  vault  with  a  grated 
window,  originally  built  for  prisoners  of  the  House,  but 
which  had  been  temporarily  made  use  of  as  a  coal-hole. 
Such  a  disturbance  was  provoked  by  the  alleged  bar- 
barity of  this  proceeding,  that  the  prisoner  was  taken 
to  a  capital  room  up  stairs,  where  he  gave  dinner-par- 
ties every  day.  His  opponents  said  the  great  difficulty 
was  to  get  rid  of  him,  for  he  seemed  to  be  permanently 
located  in  the  Parliameuc-house,  and  that,  when  they 
ordered  his  liberation,  his  friends  insisted  that  it  should 
not  take  place  until  he  had  been  carried  down  to  the 
coal-hole  cell  which  he  had  occupied  the  first  day,  and 
there  photographed  "through  the  dungeon  bars"  as 
the  "martyr  of  the  Assembly." 

Though,  both  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales  are 
democratic,  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the 
two  democracies.  In  New  South  Wales,  I  found  not 
a  democratic  so  much  as  a  mixed  country,  containing 
a  large  and  wealthy  class  with  aristocratic  prejudices, 
but  governed  by  an  intensely  democratic  majority — a 
country  not  unlike  the  State  of  Maryland.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  interest  which  attaches  to  the  political 
condition  of  Victoria  is  extreme,  since  it  probably  pre- 
sents an  accurate  view,  "in  little,"  of  the  state  of 
society  which  will  exist  in  England,  after  many  steps 
toward  social  democracy  have  been  taken,  but  before 
the  nation  as  a  whole  has  become  completely  demo- 
cratic. 

One  of  the  best  features  of  the  colonial  democracy  is 

VOL.  II.  5 


50  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

its  earnestness  in  the  cause  of  education.  In  England 
it  is  one  of  our  worst  national  peculiarities  that,  what- 
ever our  station,  we  either  are  content  with  giving 
children  an  "education"  which  is  absolutely  wanting 
in  any  real  training  for  the  mind,  or  aid  to  the  hrain  in 
its  development,  or  else  we  give  them  a  schooling  which 
is  a  mere  preparation  for  the  Bar  or  Church,  for  it  has 
always  heen  considered  with  us  that  it  is  a  far  greater 
matter  to  he  a  solicitor  or  a  curate  than  to  be  wise  or 
happy.  This  is,  of  course,  a  consequence  partly  of  the 
energy  of  the  race,  and  partly  of  our  aristocratic  form 
of  society,  which  leads  every  member  of  a  class  to  be 
continually  trying  to  get  into  the  class  immediately 
above  it  in  wealth  or  standing.  In  the  colonies,  as  in 
the  United  States,  the  democratic  form  which  society 
has  taken  has  carried  with  it  the  continental  habit  of 
thought  upon  educational  matters,  so  that  it  would 
seem  as  though  the  form  of  society  influenced  this 
question  much  more  than  the  energy  of  the  race,  which 
is  rather  heightened  than  depressed  in  these  new  coun- 
tries. The  English  Englishman  says,  "If  I  send  Dick 
to  a  good  school,  and  scrape  up  money  enough  to  put 
him  into  a  profession,  even  if  he  don't  make  much,  at 
least  he'll  be  a  gentleman."  The  Australian  or  demo- 
cratic Englishman  says,  "  Tom  must  have  good  school- 
ing, and  must  make  the  most  of  it;  but  I'll  not  have 
him  knocking  about  in  broadcloth,  and  earning  no- 
thing ;  so  no  profession  for  him ;  but  let  him  make 
money  like  me,  and  mayhap  get  a  few  acres  more  land." 
Making  allowance  for  the  thinness  of  population  in 
the  bush,  education  in  Victoria  is  extremely  general 
among  the  children,  and  is  directed  by  local  commit- 
tees with  success,  although  the  members  of  the  boards 
are  often  themselves  destitute  of  all  knowledge  except 
that  which  tells  them  that  education  will  do  their  chil- 


COLONIAL  DEMOCRACY.  51 

dren  good.  Mr.  Geary,  an  inspector  of  schools,  told 
the  Commissioners  that  he  had  examined  one  school 
where  not  a  single  member  of  the  local  committee 
could  write ;  but  these  immigrant  fathers  do  their  duty 
honestly  toward  the  children  for  all  their  ignorance, 
and  there  is  every  chance  that  the  schools  will  grow 
and  grow  until  their  influence  on  behalf  of  freedom 
becomes  as  marked  in  Victoria  as  ever  it  has  been  in 
Massachusetts.  Education  has  a  great  advantage  in 
countries  where  political  rights  are  widely  extended: 
in  the  colonies,  as  in  America,  there  is  a  spirit  of 
political  life  astir  throughout  the  country,  and  news- 
papers and  public  meetings  continue  an  education 
throughout  life  which  in  England  ceases  at  twelve, 
and  gives  place  to  driving  sheep  to  paddocks,  and 
shouting  at  rooks  in  a  wheat-field. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  state  of  the  Victorian  schools 
to  show  what  will  be  the  type  of  the  next  generation, 
but  there  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that  the  pres- 
ent disorganization  of  colonial  society  will  only  cease 
with  the  attainment  of  complete  democracy  or  absolute 
equality  of  conditions,  which  must  be  produced  by 
the  already  completely  democratic  institutions  in  little 
more  than  a  generation.  The  squatter  class  will  dis- 
appear as  agriculture  drives  sheep-farming  from  the 
field,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  town  democracy  will 
adopt  a  tone  of  manly  independence  instead  of  one  of 
brag  and  bluster,  when  education  makes  them  that 
which  at  present  they  are  not — the  equals  of  the 
wealthy  farmers. 

It  has  been  justly  pointed  out  that  one  of  the  worst 
dangers  of  democracy  is  the  crushing  influence  of  pub- 
lic opinion  upon  individuality,  and  many  who  have 
written  upon  America  have  assumed  that  the  tendency 
has  already  manifested  itself  there.  I  had  during  my 


52  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

stay  in  the  United  States  arrived  at  the  contrary  opinion, 
and  come  to  believe  that  in  no  country  in  the  world  is 
eccentricity,  moral  and  religious,  so  ripe  as  in  America, 
in  no  country  individuality  more  strong;  but,  ascribing 
to  intermixture  of  foreign  blood  this  apparently  abnor- 
mal departure  from  the  assumed  democratic  shape  of 
society,  I  looked  forward  to  the  prospect  of  seeing  the 
overwhelming  force  of  the  opinion  of  the  majority  ex- 
hibited in  all  its  hideousness  in  the  democratic  colonies. 
I  was  as  far  from  discovering  the  monster  as  I  had  been 
in  America,  for  I  soon  found  that,  although  there  may 
be  little  intellectual  unrest  in  Australia,  there  is  mar- 
velous variety  of  manners. 

There  is  in  our  colonies  no  trace  of  that  multiplica- 
tion of  creeds  which  characterizes  America,  and  which 
is  said  to  be  everywhere  the  result  of  the  abolition  of 
Establishments.  In  Victoria,  eighty  per  cent,  of  the 
whites  belong  to  either  Episcopalians,  Catholics,  or 
Presbyterians,  and  almost  all  of  the  remainder  to  the 
well-known  English  Churches;  nothing  is  heard  of 
such  sects  as  the  hundreds  that  have  sprung  up  in 
New  England — Hopkinsiaus,  Universalists,  Osgoodites, 
Rogerenes,  Come-Outers,  Non-Resistants,  and  the  like. 
The  Australian  democrat  likes  to  pray  as  his  father 
prayed  before  him,  and  is  strongly  conservative  in  his 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  It  may  be  the  absence  in  Aus- 
tralia of  enthusiastic  religion  which  accounts  for  the 
want  among  the  country-folk  of  the  peculiar  gentle- 
ness of  manner  which  distinguishes  the  farmer  in 
America.  Climate  may  have  its  effect  upon  the  voice ; 
the  influence  of  the  Puritan  and  Quaker  in  the  early 
history  of  the  thirteen  States,  when  manners  were 
moulded  and  the  national  life  shaped  for  good  or  harm, 
may  have  permanently  affected  the  descendants  of  the 
early  settlers;  but  everywhere  in  America  I  noticed 


COLONIAL   DEMOCRACY.  53 

that  the  most  perfect  dignity  and  repose  of  manner 
was  found  in  districts  where  the  passionate  religious 
systems  had  their  strongest  hold. 

There  is  no  trace  in  the  colonies  at  present  of  that 
love  for  general  ideas  which  takes  America  away  from 
England  in  philosophy,  and  sets  her  with  the  Latin 
and  Celtic  races  on  the  side  of  France.  The  tendency 
is  said  to  follow  on  democracy,  but  it  would  be  better 
said  that  democracy  is  itself  one  of  these  general  ideas. 
Democracy  in  the  colonies  is  at  present  an  accident, 
and  nothing  more ;  it  rests  upon  no  basis  of  reasoning, 
but  upon  a  fact.  The  first  settlers  were  active,  bust- 
ling men  of  fairly  even  rank  or  wealth,  none  of  whom 
could  brook  the  leadership  of  any  other.  The  only 
way  out  of  the  difficulty  was  the  adoption  of  the  rule 
"All  of  us  to  be  equal,  and  the  majority  to  govern;" 
but  there  is  no  conception  of  the  nature  of  democracy, 
as  the  unfortunate  Chinese  have  long  since  discovered. 
The  colonial  democrats  understood  "democracy"  as 
little  as  the  party  which  takes  the  name  in  the  United 
States;  but  there  is  at  present  no  such  party  in  the 
colonies  as  the  great  Kepublican  party  of  America. 

Democracy  cannot  always  remain  an  accident  in 
Australia :  where  once  planted,  it  never  fails  to  fix  its 
roots ;  but  even  in  America  its  growth  has  been  ex- 
tremely slow.  There  is  at  present  in  Victoria  and  New 
South  Wales  a  general  admission  among  the  men  of 
the  existence  of  equality  of  conditions,  together  with  a 
perpetual  rebellion  on  the  part  of  their  wives  to  defeat 
democracy,  and  to  reintroduce  the  old  "  colonial  court" 
society,  and  resulting  class  divisions.  The  consequence 
of  this  distinction  is  that  the  women  are  mostly  en- 
gaged in  elbowing  their  way;  while  among  their  hus- 
bands there  is  no  such  thing  as  the  pretending  to  a 
style,  a  culture,  or  a  wealth  that  the  pretender  does 

5* 


54  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

not  possess,  for  the  reason  that  no  male  colonist  ad- 
mits the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  a  social  superior. 
Like  the  American  "  democrat,"  the  Australian  will 
admit  that  there  may  be  any  number  of  grades  below 
him,  so  long  as  you  allow  that  he  is  at  the  top ;  but  no 
republican  can  be  stauncher  in  the  matter  of  his  own 
equality  with  the  best. 

There  is  no  sign  that  in  Australia  any  more  than  in 
America  there  will  spring  up  a  center  of  opposition  to 
the  dominant  majority;  but  there  is  as  little  evidence 
that  the  majority  will  even  unwittingly  abuse  its  power. 
It  is  the  fashion  to  say  that  for  a  State  to  be  intel- 
lectually great  and  noble  there  must  be  within  it  a 
nucleus  of  opposition  to  the  dominant  principles  of  the 
time  and  place,  and  that  the  best  and  noblest  minds, 
the  intellects  the  most  seminal,  have  invariably  be- 
longed to  men  who  formed  part  of  such  a  group.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  this  assumed  necessity  for 
opposition  to  the  public  will  is  not  characteristic  of  a 
terribly  imperfect  state  of  society  and  government.  It 
is  chiefly  because  the  world  has  never  had  experience 
of  a  national  life  at  once  throbbing  with  the  pulse  of 
the  whole  people,  and  completely  tolerant  not  only  in 
law  but  in  opinion  of  sentiments  the  most  divergent 
from  the  views  of  the  majority — firm  in  the  pursuit  of 
truths  already  grasped,  but  ready  to  seize  with  avidity 
upon  new;  gifted  with  a  love  of  order,  yet  ready  to  fit 
itself  to  shifting  circumstances — that  men  continue  to 
look  with  complacency  upon  the  enormous  waste  of 
intellectual  power  that  occurs  when  a  germ  of  truth 
such  as  that  contained  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Puritans 
finds  development  and  acceptance  only  after  centuries 
have  passed. 

Australia  will  start  unclogged  by  slavery  to  try  this 
experiment  for  the  world. 


PROTECTION.  55 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PROTECTION. 

THE  greatest  of  all  democratic  stumbling-blocks  is 
said  to  be  Protection. 

"Encourage  native  industry!"  the  colonial  shop- 
keepers write  up;  "Show  your  patriotism,  and  buy 
colonial  goods!"  is  painted  in  huge  letters  on  a  shop- 
front  at  Castlemaine.  In  England,  some  unscrupulous 
traders,  we  are  told,  write  "From  Paris"  over  their 
English  goods,  but  such  dishonesty  in  Victoria  takes 
another  shape;  there  we  have  "Warranted  colonial 
made"  placed  over  imported  wares,  for  many  will  pay 
a  higher  price  for  a  colonial  product  confessedly  not 
more  than  equal  to  the  foreign,  such  is  the  rage  for 
Native  Industry,  and  the  hatred  of  the  "Antipodean 
doctrine  of  Free  Trade." 

Many  former  colonists  who  live  at  home  persuade 
themselves,  and  unfortunately  persuade  also  the  public 
in  England,  that  the  Protectionists  are  weak  in  the 
colonies.  So  far  is  this  from  being  the  case  in  either 
Victoria  or  New  South  Wales,  that  in  the  former 
colony  I  found  that  in  the  Lower  House  the  Free 
Traders  formed  but  three-elevenths  of  the  Assembly, 
and  in  New  South  Wales  the  pastoral  tenants  of  the 
crown  may  be  said  to  stand  alone  in  their  support  of 
Free  Trade.  Some  of  the  squatters  go  so  far  as  to 
declare  that  none  of  the  public  men  of  the  colonies 
really  believe  in  the  advantages  of  Protection,  but  that 
they  dishonestly  accept  the  principle,  and  undertake 


56  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

to  act  upon  it  when  in  office,  in  order  to  secure  the 
votes  of  an  ignorant  majority  of  laborers,  who  are 
themselves  convinced  that  Protection  means  high 
wages. 

It  would  seem  as  though  we  Free  Traders  had  be- 
come nearly  as  bigoted  in  favor  of  Free  Trade  as  our 
former  opponents  were  in  favor  of  Protection.  Just 
as  they  used  to  say  "  We  are  right;  why  argue  the 
question?"  so  now,  in  face  of  the  support  of  Protec- 
tion by  all  the  greatest  minds  in  America,  all  the  first 
statesmen  of  the  Australias,  we  tell  the  New  England 
and  the  Australian  politicians  that  we  will  not  discuss 
Protection  with  them,  because  there  can  be  no  two 
minds  about  it  among  men  of  intelligence  and  educa- 
tion. We  will  hear  no  defense  of  "  national  lunacy," 
we  say. 

If,  putting  aside  our  prejudices,  we  consent  to  argue 
with  an  Australian  or  American  Protectionist,  we  find 
ourselves  in  difficulties.  All  the  ordinary  arguments 
against  the  compelling  people  by  act  of  Parliament  to 
consume  a  dearer  or  inferior  article  are  admitted  as 
soon  as  they  are  urged.  If  you  attempt  to  prove  that 
Protection  is  bolstered  up  by  those  whose  private  in- 
terests it  subserves,  you  are  shown  the  shrewd  Aus- 
tralian diggers  and  the  calculating  Western  farmers 
in  America — men  whose  pocket  interest  is  wholly  op- 
posed to  Protection,  and  who  yet,  almost  to  a  man, 
support  it.  A  digger  at  Ballarat  defended  Protection 
to  me  in  this  way :  he  said  he  knew  that  under  a  pro- 
tective tariff  he  had  to  pay  dearer  than  would  other- 
wise be  the  case  for  his  jacket  and  his  moleskin  trow- 
sers,  but  that  he  preferred  to  do  this,  as  by  so  doing 
he  aided  in  building  up  in  the  colony  such  trades  as 
the  making  up  of  clothes,  in  which  his  brother  and 
other  men  physically  too  weak  to  be  diggers  could 


PROTECTION.  57 

gain  an  honest  living.  In  short,  the  self-denying  Pro- 
tection of  the  Australian  diggers  is  of  the  character  of 
that  which  would  be  accorded  to  the  glaziers  of  a  town 
by  the  citizens,  if  they  broke  their  windows  to  find 
their  fellow-townsmen  work:  "We  know  we«lose,  but 
men  must  live,"  they  say.  At  the  same  time  they 
deny  that  the  loss  will  be  enduring.  The  digger  tells 
you  that  he  should  not  mind  a  continuing  pocket  loss, 
but  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this,  which  in  an  old 
country  would  be  pocket  loss,  in  a  new  country  such 
as  his  only  comes  to  this — that  it  forms  a  check  on  im- 
migration. Wages  being  5s.  a  day  in  Victoria  and  3s. 
a  day  in  England,  workmen  would  naturally  flock  into 
Victoria  from  England  until  wages  in  Melbourne  fell 
to  3s.  6d.  or  45.  Here  comes  in  prohibition,  and  by 
increasing  the  cost  of'  living  in  Victoria,  and  cutting 
into  the  Australian  handicraftsman's  margin  of  lux- 
uries, and  reducing  his  wages  to  4s.,  diminishes  the 
temptation  to  immigration,  and  consequently  the  in- 
flux itself. 

The  Western  farmers  in  America,  I  have  heard,  de- 
fend Protection  upon  far  wider  grounds :  they  admit 
that  Free  Trade  would  conduce  to  the  most  rapid  pos- 
sible peopling  of  their  country  with  foreign  immi- 
grants ;  but  this,  they  sa}^,  is  an  eminently  undesirable 
conclusion.  They  prefer  to  pay  a  heavy  tax  in  the 
increased  price  of  everything  they  consume,  and  in  the 
greater  cost  of  labor,  rather  than  see  their  country 
denationalized  by  a  rush  of  Irish  or  Germans,  or  their 
political  institutions  endangered  by  a  still  further  in- 
crease in  the  size  and  power  of  New  York.  One  old 
fellow  said  to  me :  "  I  don't  want  the  Americans  in 
1900  to  be  200  millions,  but  I  want  them  to  be  happy." 

The  American  Protectionists  point  to  the  danger 
that  their  countrymen  would  run  unless  town  kept 


58  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

pace  with  country  population.  Settlers  would  pour  off 
to  the  West,  and  drain  the  juices  of  the  fertile  land  by 
cropping  it  year  after  year  without  fallow,  without 
manure,  and  then,  as  the  land  became  in  a  few  years 
exhausted,  would  have  nowhere  whither  to  turn  to 
find  the  fertilizers  which  the  soil  would  need.  Were 
they  to  depend  upon  agriculture  alone,  they  would 
sweep  in  a  wave  across  the  land,  leaving  behind  them 
a  worn-out,  depopulated,  jungle-covered  soil,  open  to 
future  settlement,  when  its  lands  should  have  recovered 
their  fertility,  by  some  other  and  more  provident  race. 
The  coastlands  of  most  ancient  countries  are  exhausted, 
densely  bushed,  and  uninhabited.  In  this  fact  lies  the 
power  of  our  sailor  race :  crossing  the  seas,  we  occupy 
the  coasts,  and  step  by  step  work  our  way  into  the 
upper  country,  where  we  should  not  have  attempted 
to  show  ourselves  had  the  ancient  population  resisted 
us  upon  the  shores.  In  India,  in  Ceylon,  we  met  the 
hardy  race  of  the  highlands  and  interior  only  after  we 
had  already  fixed  ourselves  upon  the  coast,  with  a  safe 
basis  for  our  supply.  The  fate  that  these  countries 
have  met  is  that  which  colonists  expect  to  be  their 
own,  unless  the  protective  system  be  carried  out  in  its 
entirety.  In  like  manner  the  Americans  point  to  the 
ruin  of  Virginia,  and  if  you  urge  "slavery,"  answer, 
"  slavery  is  but  agriculture." 

Those  who  speak  of  the  selfishness  of  the  Protection- 
ists as  a  whole,  can  never  have  taken  the  trouble  to 
examine  into  the  arguments  by  which  Protection  is 
supported  in  Australia  and  America.  In  these  coun- 
tries, Protection  is  no  mere  national  delusion ;  it  is  a 
system  deliberately  adopted  with  open  eyes  as  one 
conducive  to  the  country's  welfare,  in  spite  of  objec- 
tions known  to  all,  in  spite  of  pocket  losses  that  come 
home  to  all.  If  it  be,  as  we  in  England  believe,  a  folly, 


PROTECTION.  59 

it  is  at  all  events  a  sublime  one,  full  of  self-sacrifice, 
illustrative  of  a  certain  nobility  in  the  national  heart. 
The  Australian  diggers  and  Western  farmers  in  Amer- 
ica are  setting  a  grand  example  to  the  world  of  self- 
sacrifice  for  a  national  object;  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  rough  men  are  content  to  live — they  and  their  fami- 
lies— upon  less  than  they  might  otherwise  enjoy,  in 
order  that  the  condition  of  the  mass  of  their  country- 
men may  continue  raised  above  that  of  their  brother 
toilers  in  Old  England.  Their  manufactures  are  be- 
ginning now  to  stand  alone$  but  hitherto,  without  Pro- 
tection, the  Americans  would  have  had  no  cities  but 
seaports.  By  picturing  to  ourselves  England  dependent 
upon  the  City  of  London,  upon  Liverpool,  and  Hull, 
and  Bristol,  we  shall  see  the  necessity  the  Western 
men  are  now  under  of  setting  oiF  Pittsburg  against 
New  York  and  Philadelphia.  In  short,  the  tendency, 
according  to  the  Western  farmers,  of  Free  Trade,  in 
the  early  stages  of  a  country's  existence,  is  to  promote 
universal  centralization,  to  destroy  local  centers  and 
the  commerce  they  create,  to  so  tax  the  farmer  with 
the  cost  of  transport  to  the  distant  centers,  conse- 
quent upon  the  absence  of  local  markets,  that  he  can 
grow  but  wheat  and  corn  continuously,  and  cannot 
but  exhaust  his  soil.  With  markets  so  distant,  the 
richest  forest  lands  are  not  worth  clearing,  and  a  wave 
of  settlement  sweeps  over  the  country,  occupying 
the  poorer  lands,  and  then  abandoning  them  once 
more. 

Protection  in  the  colonies  and  America  is  to  a  great 
degree  a  revolt  against  steam.  Steam  is  making  the 
world  all  one;  steam  "corrects"  differences  in  the 
price  of  labor.  When  steam  brings  all  races  into  com- 
petition with  each  other,  the  cheaper  races  will  ex- 
tinguish the  dearer,  till  at  last  some  one  people  will 


60  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

inhabit  the  whole  earth.  Coal  remains  the  only  power, 
as  it  will  probably  always  be  cheaper  to  carry  the 
manufactured  goods  than  to  carry  the  coal. 

Time  after  time  I  have  heard  the  Western  farmers 
draw  imaginary  pictures  of  the  state  of  America  if  Free 
Trade  should  gain  the  day,  and  asking  of  what  avail  it 
is  to  say  that  Free  Trade  and  free  circulation  of  people 
is  profitable  to  the  pocket,  if  it  destroys  the  national 
existence  of  America ;  what  good  to  point  out  the  gain 
of  weight  to  their  purses,  in  the  face  of  the  destruction 
of  their  religion,  their  language,  and  their  Saxon  insti- 
tutions. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  the  thinkers  of  America  de- 
fended Protection  to  me  on  the  following  grounds: 
That  without  Protection,  America  could  at  present 
have  but  few  and  limited  manufactures.  That  a  nation 
cannot  properly  be  said  to  exist  as  such,  unless  she  has 
manufactures  of  many  kinds ;  for  men  are  born,  some 
with  a  turn  to  agriculture,  some  with  a  turn  to  mechan- 
ics; and  if  you  force  the  mechanic  by  nature  to  become 
a  farmer,  he  will  make  a  bad  farmer,  and  the  nation 
will  lose  the  advantage  of  all  his  power  and  invention. 
That  the  whole  of  the  possible  employments  of  the 
human  race  are  in  a  measure  necessary  employments 
— necessary  to  the  making  up  of  a  nation.  That  every 
concession  to  Free  Trade  cuts  out  of  all  chance  of 
action  some  of  the  faculties  of  the  American  national 
mind,  and,  so  doing,  weakens  and  debases  it.  That 
each  and  every  class  of  workers  is  of  such  importance 
to  the  country,  that  we  must  make  any  sacrifice  neces- 
sary to  maintain  them  in  full  work.  "The  national 
mind  is  manifold,"  he  said;  "and  if  you  do  not  keep 
up  every  branch  of  employment  in  every  district,  you 
waste  the  national  force.  If  we  were  to  remain  a 
purely  agricultural  people,  land  would  fall  into  fewer 


PROTECTION.  61 

and  fewer  hands,  and  our  people  become  more  and 
more  brutalized  as  the  years  rolled  on." 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Protection  is  entirely 
defended  upon  these  strange  new  grounds.  "Save  us 
from  the  pauper-labor  of  Europe,"  is  the  most  recent 
as  well  as  the  oldest  of  Protectionist  cries.  The  Aus- 
tralians and  Americans  say,  that  by  working  women  at 
Is.  a  day  in  the  mines  in  Wales,  and  by  generally  de- 
grading all  laborers  under  the  rank  of  highly-skilled 
artisans,  the  British  keep  wages  so  low,  that,  in  spite  or 
the  cost  of  carriage,  they  can  almost  invariably  under- 
sell the  colonists  and  Americans  in  American  and  Aus- 
tralian markets.  This  state  of  degradation  and  poverty 
nothing  can  force  them  to  introduce  into  their  own  coun- 
tries, and,  on  the  other  hand,  they  consider  the  iron 
manufacture  necessary  for  the  national  purpose  alluded 
to  before.  The  alternative  is  Protection. 

The  most  unavoidable  of  all  the  difficulties  of  Pro- 
tection— namely,  that  no  human  government  can  ever 
be  trusted  to  adjust  protective  taxation  without  cor- 
ruption— is  no  objection  to  the  prohibitions  which  the 
Western  Protectionists  demand.  The  New  Englanders 
say — "Let  us  meet  the  English  on  fair  terms;"  the 
Western  men  say  that  they  will  not  meet  them  at  all. 
Some  of  the  New  York  Protectionists  declare  that  their 
object  is  merely  the  fostering  of  American  manufac- 
tures until  they  are  able  to  stand  alone,  the  United 
States  not  having  at  present  reached  the  point  which 
had  been  attained  by  other  nations  when  they  threw 
Protection  to  the  winds.  Such  halting  Protectionists 
as  these  manufacturers  find  no  sympathy  in  Australia 
or  the  West,  although  the  highest  of  all  Protectionists 
look  forward  to  the  distant  time  when,  local  centers 
being  everywhere  established,  customs  will  be  abolished 
on  all  sides,  and  mankind  form  one  great  family. 

VOL.  II.  6 


62  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

The  chief  thing  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  discussing 
Protection  with  an  Australian  or  an  American  is  that 
he  never  thinks  of  denying  that  under  Protection  he 
pays  a  higher  price  for  his  goods  than  he  would  if  he 
bought  them  from  us,  and  that  he  admits  at  once  that 
he  temporarily  pays  a  tax  of  15  or  20  per  cent,  upon 
everything  he  buys  in  order  to  help  set  his  country  on 
the  road  to  national  unity  and  ultimate  wealth.  With- 
out Protection,  the  American  tells  you,  there  will  be 
commercial  New  York,  sugar-growing  Louisiana,  the 
corn-growing  Northwest,  but  no  America.  Protection 
alone  can  give  him  a  united  country.  When  we  talk 
about  things  being  to  the  advantage  or  disadvantage 
of  a  country,  the  American  Protectionist  asks  what 
you  mean.  Admitting  that  all  you  say  against  Pro- 
tection may  be  true,  he  says  that  he  had  sooner  see 
America  supporting  a  hundred  millions  independent 
of  the  remainder  of  the  world  than  two  hundred  mil- 
lions dependent  for  clothes  upon  the  British.  "  You, 
on  the  other  hand,"  he  says,  "would  prefer  our  cus- 
tom. How  can  we  discuss  the  question  ?  The  differ- 
ence between  us  is  radical,  and  we  have  no  base  on 
which  to  build." 

It  is  a  common  doctrine  in  the  colonies  of  England 
that  a  nation  cannot  be  called  "  independent"  if  it  has 
to  cry  out  to  another  for  supplies  of  necessaries  ;  that 
true  national  existence  is  first  attained  when  the  coun- 
try becomes  capable  of  supplying  to  its  own  citizens 
those  goods  without  which  they  cannot  exist  in  the 
state  of  comfort  which  they  have  already  reached. 
Political  is  apt  to  follow  upon  commercial  dependency, 
they  say. 

The  question  of  Protection  is  bound  up  with  the 
wider  one  of  whether  we  are  to  love  our  fellow-subjects, 
our  race,  or  the  world  at  large ;  whether  we  are  to  pur- 


PROTECTION.  63 

sue  our  country's  good  at  the  expense  of  other  nations? 
There  is  a  growing  belief  in  England  that  the  noblest 
philosophy  is  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  moral  right 
to  benefit  ourselves  by  harming  others ;  that  love  of 
mankind  must  in  time  replace  love  of  race  as  that  has 
in  part  replaced  narrow  patriotism  and  love  of  self.  It 
would  seem  that  our  Free  Trade  system  lends  itself 
better  to  these  wide  modern  sympathies  than  does  Pro- 
tection. On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  argued  that,  if 
every  State  consults  the  good  of  its  own  citizens,  we 
shall,  by  the  action  of  all  nations,  obtain  the  desired 
happiness  of  the  whole  world,  and  that,  with  rapidity, 
from  the  reason  that  every  country  understands  its  own 
interests  better  thar^it  does  those  of  its  neighbor.  As 
a  rule,  the  colonists  hold  that  they  should  not  protect 
themselves  against  the  sister-colonies,  but  only  against 
the  outer  world ;  and  while  I  was  in  Melbourne  an  ar- 
rangement was  made  with  respect  to  the  border  cus- 
toms between  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales;  but  this 
is  at  present  the  only  step  that  has  been  taken  toward 
intercolonial  Free  Trade. 

It  is  passing  strange  that  Victoria  should  be  noted 
for  the  eagerness  with  which  her  people  seek  Protec- 
tion. Possessed  of  little  coal,  they  appear  to  be  at- 
tempting artificially  to  create  an  industry  which,  owing 
to  this  sad  lack  of  fuel,  must  languish  from  the  mo- 
ment that  it  is  let  alone.  Sydney  coal  sells  in  Mel- 
bourne at  thirty  shillings  a  ton  ;  at  the  pit's-mouth  at 
Newcastle,  New  South  Wales,  it  fetches  only  seven  or 
eight  shillings.  With  regard,  however,  to  the  making- 
up  of  native  produce,  the  question  in  the  case  of  Vic- 
toria is  merely  this :  Is  it  cheaper  to  carry  the  wool  to 
the  coal,  and  then  the  woolen  goods  back  again,  than 
to  carry  the  coal  to  the  wool  ?  and  as  long  as  Victoria 
can  continue  to  export  wheat,  so  that  the  coal-ships 


64  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

may  not  want  freight,  wool  manufactures  may  proba- 
bly prosper  in  Victoria. 

The  Victorians  naturally  deny  that  the  cost  of  coal 
has  much  to  do  with  the  question.  The  French  man- 
ufacturers, they  point  out,  with  dearer  coal,  but  with 
cheaper  labor,  have  in  many  branches  of  trade  beaten 
the  English  out  of  common  markets,  but  then  under 
Protection  there  is  no  chance  of  cheap  labor  in  Vic- 
toria. 

Writing  for  the  Englishmen  of  Old  England,  it  is 
not  necessary  for  me  to  defend  Free  Trade  by  any 
arguments.  As  far  as  we  in  our  island  are  concerned. 

O  ' 

it  is  so  manifestly  to  the  pocket  interest  of  almost  all 
of  us,  and  at  the  same  time,  on  account  of  the  minute- 
ness of  our  territory,  so  little  dangerous  politically, 
that  for  Britain  there  can  be  no  danger  of  a  deliberate 
relapse  into  Protection;  although  we  have  but  little 
right  to  talk  about  Free  Trade  so  long  as  we  continue 
our  enormous  subsidies  to  the  Cunard  liners. 

The  American  argument  in  favor  of  Prohibition  is 
in  the  main,  it  will  be  seen,  political,  the  economical 
objections  being  admitted,  but  outweighed.  Our  ac- 
tion in  the  matter  of  our  postal  contracts,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Factory  acts,  at  all  events  shows  that  we 
are  not  ourselves  invariably  averse  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  political  and  the  economical  aspect  of  certain 
questions. 

My  duty  has  been  to  chronicle  what  is  said  and 
thought  upon  the  matter  in  our  various  plantations. 
One  thing  at  least  is  clear — that  even  if  the  opinions 
I  have  recorded  be  as  ridiculous  when  applied  to  Aus- 
tralia or  America  as  they  would  be  when  applied  to 
England,  they  are  not  supported  by  a  selfish  clique, 
but  rest  upon  the  generosity  and  self-sacrifice  of  a 
majority  of  the  population. 


LABOR.  65 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LABOR. 

SIDE  by  side  with  the  unselfish  Protectionism  of  the 
diggers  there  flourishes  among  the  artisans  of  the  Aus- 
tralias  a  self-interested  desire  for  non-intercourse  with 
the  outside  world. 

In  America,  the  working  men,  themselves  almost 
without  exception  immigrants,  though  powerful  in  the 
various  States  from  holding  the  balance  of  parties, 
have  never  as  yet  been  able  to  make  their  voices  heard 
in  the  Federal  Congress.  In  the  chief  Australian 
colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  the  artisans  have,  more 
than  any  other  class,  the  possession  of  political  power. 
Throughout  the  world  the  grievance  of  the  working 
classes  lies  in  the  fact  that,  while  trade  and  profits  have 
increased  enormously  within  the  last  few  years,  true  as 
distinguished  from  nominal  wages  have  not  risen.  It 
is  even  doubted  whether  the  American  or  British  han- 
dicraftsman can  now  live  in  such  comfort  as  he  could 
make  sure  of  a  few  years  back :  it  is  certain  that  agri- 
cultural laborers  in  the  south  of  England  are  worse  off 
than  they  were  ten  years  ago,  although  the  deprecia- 
tion of  gold  prevents  us  from  accurately  gauging  their 
true  position.  In  Victoria  and  JS~ew  South  Wales,  and 
in  the  States  of  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Missouri,  where 
the  artisans  possess  some  share  of  power,  they  have  set 
about  the  attempt  to  remedy  by  law  the  grievance  under 
which  they  suffer.  In  the  American  States,  where  the 
suppression  of  immigration  seems  almost  impossible, 

6* 


66  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

their  interference  takes  the  shape  of  eight-hour  bills, 
and  exclusion  of  colored  laborers.  There  is  no  trades 
union  in  America  which  will  admit  to  membership  a 
Chinaman,  or  even  a  mulatto.  In  Victoria  and  New 
South  Wales,  however,  it  is  not  difficult  quietly  to  put  a 
check  upon  the  importation  of  foreign  labor.  The  vast 
distance  from  Europe  makes  the  unaided  immigration 
of  artisans  extremely  rare,  and  since  the  democrats 
have  been  in  power  the  funds  for  assisted  immigration 
have  been  withheld,  and  the  Chinese  influx  all  but  for- 
bidden, while  manifestoes  against  the  ordinary  Euro- 
pean immigration  have  repeatedly  been  published  at 
Sydney  by  the  Council  of  the  Associated  Trades. 

The  Sydney  operatives  have  always  taken  a  leading 
part  in  opposition  to  immigration,  from  the  time  when 
they  founded  the  Anti-Transportation  Committee  up 
to  the  present  day.  In  1847,  a  natural  and  proper 
wish  to  prevent  the  artificial  depression  of  wages  was 
at  the  bottom  of  the  anti-transportation  movement, 
although  the  arguments  made  use  of  in  the  petition  to 
the  Queen  were  of  the  most  general  character,  and 
Sydney  mechanics,  many  of  them  free  immigrants 
themselves,  say  that  there  is  no  difference  of  principle 
between  the  introduction  of  free  or  assisted  immigrants 
and  that  of  convicts. 

If  we  look  merely  to  the  temporary  results  of  the 
policy  of  the  Australian  artisans,  we  shall  find  it  hard 
to  deny  that  their  acts  are  calculated  momentarily  to 
increase  their  material  prosperity ;  so  far  they  may  be 
selfish,  but  they  are  not  blind.  Admitting  that  wages 
depend  on  the  ratio  of  capital  to  population,  the  Aus- 
tralians assert  that,  with  them,  population  increases 
faster  than  capital,  and  that  hindering  immigration 
will  restore  the  balance.  Prudential  checks  on  popu- 
lation are  useless,  they  say,  in  face  of  Irish  immigra- 


. 


LABOR.  67 

tion.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  clear  that,  from  the  dis- 
couragement of  immigration  and  limitation  to  eight 
hours  of  the  daily  toil,  there  results  an  exceptional 
scarcity  of  labor,  which  cramps  the  development  o 
the  country,  and  causes  a  depression  in  trade  which 
must  soon  diminish  the  wage-fund,  and  react  upon* 
the  working  men.  It  is  unfortunately  the  fact,  that 
colonial  artisans  do  not  sufficiently  bear  in  mind  the 
distinction  between  real  and  nominal  wages,  but  are 
easily  caught  by  the  show  of  an  extra  few  shillings  a 
week,  even  though  the  purchasing  power  of  each  shil- 
ling be  diminished  by  the  change.  When  looked  into, 
"  higher  wages"  often  mean  that  the  laborer,  instead 
of  starving  upon  ten  shillings  a  week,  is  for  the  future 
to  starve  upon  twenty. 

As  regards  the  future,  contrasted  with  the  tempo- 
rary condition  of  the  Australian  laborer,  there  is  no 
disguising  the  fact  that  mere  exclusion  of  immigration 
will  not  in  the  long  run  avail  him.  It  might,  of  course, 
be  urged  that  immigration  is,  even  in  America,  a  small 
matter  by  the  side  of  the  natural  increase  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  to  shut  out  the  immigrant  is  but  one  of 
many  checks  to  population ;  but  in  Australia  the  natural 
increase  is  not  so  great  as  in  a  young  country  might 
be  expected.  The  men  so  largely  outnumber  the 
women  in  Australia,  that  even  early  marriages  and 
large  families  cannot  make  the  birth-rate  very  high, 
and  fertile  land  being  at  present  still  to  be  obtained  at 
first  hand,  the  new  agricultural  districts  swallow  up 
the  natural  increase  of  the  Copulation.  Still,  import- 
ant as  is  immigration  at  this  moment,  ultimately 
through  the  influx  of  women — to  which  the  democrats 
are  not  opposed — or,  more  slowly,  by  the  effort  of  na- 
ture to  restore  the  balance  of  the  sexes,  the  rate  of 
natural  increase  will  become  far  greater  in  Australia. 


68  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Ultimately,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  if  the  Australian 
laborer  continues  to  retain  his  present  standard  of  com- 
fort, prudential  checks  upon  the  birth  of  children  will 
be  requisite  to  maintain  the  present  ratio  of  capital  to 
population. 

Owing  to  the  comparatively  high  prices  fixed  for 
agricultural  land  in  the  three  southeastern  colonies  of 
Australia,  the  abundance  of  unoccupied  tracts  has  not 
hitherto  had  that  influence  on  wages  in  Australia 
which  it  appears  to  have  exercised  in  America,  but 
under  the  democratic  amendments  of  the  existing  free 
selection  system,  wages  will  probably  again  rise  in  the 
colonies,  to  be  once  more  reduced  by  immigration,  or, 
if  the  democracy  gains  the  day,  more  slowly  lowered 
by  the  natural  increase  of  the  population. 

In  places  where  competition  has  reduced  the  reward 
of  labor  to  the  lowest  amount  consistent  with  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  work,  compulsory  restriction  of  the  hours 
of  toil  must  evidently  be  an  unmixed  benefit  to  the 
laborer,  until  carried  to  the  point  at  which  it  destroys 
the  trade  in  which  he  is  engaged.  In  America  and 
Australia,  however,  where  the  laborer  has  a  margin  of 
luxuries  which  can  be  cut  down,  and  where  the  manu- 
facturers are  still  to  some  extent  competing  with  Euro- 
pean rivals,  restriction  of  hours  puts  them  at  a  disad- 
vantage with  the  capitalists  of  the  old  world,  and, 
reducing  their  profits,  tend  also  to  diminish  the  wage- 
fund,  and  ultimately  to  decrease  the  wages  of  their 
men.  The  colonial  action  in  this  matter  may,  never- 
theless, like  all  infringements  of  general  economic 
laws,  be  justified  by  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  higher 
necessity  for  breaking  than  for  adhering  to  the  rule  of 
freedom.  Our  own  Factory  Acts,  we  should  remem- 
ber, were  undoubtedly  calculated  to  diminish  the  pro- 
duction of  the  country. 


LABOR.  69 

Were  the  American  and  Australian  handicraftsmen 
to  become  sufficiently  powerful  to  combine  strict  Pro- 
tection, or  prohibition  of  foreign  intercourse,  with  re- 
duction of  hours  of  toil,  they  would  ultimately  drive 
capital  out  of  their  countries,  and  either  lower  wages, 
or  else  diminish  the  population  by  checking  both  im- 
migration and  natural  increase.  Here,  as  in  the  con- 
sideration of  Protection,  we  come  to  that  bar  to  all  dis- 
cussion, the  question,  "What  is  a  nation's  good?"  It 
is  at  least  doubtful  whether  in  England  we  do  not 
attach  too  great  importance  to  the  continuance  of  na- 
tions in  "the  progressive  state."  Unrestricted  immi- 
gration may  destroy  the  literature,  the  traditions,  the 
nationality  itself  of  the  invaded  country,  and  it  is  a 
question  whether  these  ideas  are  not  worth  preserving 
even  at  a  cost  of  a  few  figures  in  the  returns  of  imports, 
exports,  and  population.  A  country  in  which  Free  Trade 
principles  have  been  carried  to  their  utmost  logical 
development  must  be  cosmopolitan  and  nationless,  and 
for  such  a  state  of  things  to  exist  universally  without 
danger  to  civilization  the  world  is  not  yet  prepared. 

"Know-nothingism"  in  America,  as  what  is  now 
styled  "  native  Americanism  "  was  once  called — a  form 
of  the  protest  against  the  exaggeration  of  Free  Trade — 
was  founded  by  handicraftsmen,  and  will  in  all  proba- 
bility find  its  main  support  within  their  ranks  when- 
ever the  time  for  its  inevitable  resuscitation  shall  arrive. 
That  there  is  honest  pride  of  race  at  the  bottom  of  the 
agitation  no  one  can  doubt  who  knows  the  history  of 
the  earlier  Know-nothing  movement;  but  class  interest 
happens  to  point  the  same  way  as  does  the  instinct  of 
the  race.  The  refusal  of  political  privileges  to  immi- 
grants will  undoubtedly  have  some  tendency  to  check 
the  flow  of  immigration ;  at  all  events,  it  will  check 
the  self-assertion  of  the  immigrants.  That  which  does 


70  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

this  leaves,  too,  the  control  of  wages  more  within  the 
hands  of  actual  laborers,  and  prevents  the  European 
laborers  of  the  eleventh  hour  coming  in  to  share  the 
heightened  wages  for  which  the  American  hands  have 
struck,  and  suffered  misery  and  want.  No  consistent 
republican  can  object  to  the  making  ten  or  twenty 
years'  residence  in  the  United  States  the  condition  for 
citizenship  of  the  land. 

In  the  particular  case  of  the  Australian  colonies, 
they  are  happily  separated  from  Ireland  by  seas  so 
wide  as  to  have  a  chance  of  preserving  a  distinct 
nationality,  such  as  America  can  scarcely  hope  for: 
only  1500  persons  have  come  to  New  South  Wales, 
unassisted,  in  the  last  five  years.  The  burden  of  proof 
lies  upon  those  who  propose  to  destroy  the  rising 
nationality  by  assisting  the  importation  of  a  mixed 
multitude  of  negroes,  Chinamen,  Hill-coolies,  Irish, 
and  Germans,  in  order  that  the  imports  and  exports 
of  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales  may  be  increased, 
and  that  there  may  be  a  larger  number  of  so-called 
Victorians  and  New  South  Welsh  to  live  in  misery. 

Owing  to  the  fostering  of  immigration  by  the  aristo- 
cratic government,  the  population  of  Queensland  had, 
in  1866,  quadrupled  itself  since  1860 ;  but,  even  were 
the  other  colonies  inclined  to  follow  the  example  of 
their  northern  sister,  they  could  not  do  so  with  success. 
New  South  Wales  and  Tasmania  might  import  col- 
onists by  the  thousand,  but  they  would  be  no  sooner 
landed  than  they  would  run  to  Queensland,  or  sail  to 
the  New  Zealand  diggings,  just  as  the  "  Canadian  im- 
migrants "  flock  into  the  United  States. 

That  phase  of  the  labor  question  to  which  I  have 
last  alluded  seems  to  shape  itself  into  the  question, 
"  Shall  the  laborer  always  and  everywhere  be  en- 
couraged or  permitted  to  carry  his  labor  to  the  best 


LABOR.  71 

market?"  The  Australians  answer  that  they  are  will- 
ing to  admit  that  additional  hands  in  a  new  country 
mean  additional  wealth,  but  that  there  is  but  little 
good  in  our  preaching  moral  restraint  to  them  if  Eu- 
ropean immigration  is  to  be  encouraged,  Chinese 
allowed.  The  only  effect,  they  say,  that  self-control 
can  have  is  that  of  giving  such  children  as  they  do 
rear  Chinamen  or  Irishmen  to  struggle  against  instead 
of  brothers.  It  is  hopeless  to  expect  that  the  Austra- 
lian workmen  will  retain  their  present  high  standard 
of  comfort  if  an  influx  of  dard-skinned  handicrafts- 
men is  permitted. 

Some  ten  or  even  fewer  years  ago,  we  Free  Traders 
of  the  Western  world,  first  then  coming  to  know  some 
little  about  the  kingdoms  of  the  further  East,  paused  a 
moment  in  our  daily  toil  to  lift  to  the  skies  our  hands 
in  lamentation  at  the  blind  exclusiveness  which  we 
were  told  had  for  ages  past  held  sway  within  the 
council  chambers  of  Pekin.  No  words  were  too  strong 
for  our  new-found  laughing-stock;  China  became  for 
us  what  we  are  to  Parisian  journalists — a  Bcsotia  re- 
deemed only  by  a  certain  eccentricity  of  folly.  This 
vast  hive  swarming  with  two  hundred  million  working 
bees  was  said  to  find  its  interest  in  shutting  out  the 
world,  punishing  alike  with  death  the  outgoing  and 
incoming  of  the  people.  " China  for  the  Chinese" 
was  the  common  war-cjy  of  the  rulers  and  the  ruled; 
" Self-contained  has  China  been,  and  prospered;  self- 
contained  she  shall  continue,"  the  favorite  maxim  of 
their  teachers.  Nothing  could  be  conceived  nobler 
than  the  scorn  which  mingled  with  half-doubting 
incredulity  and  with  Pharisaic  thanking  of  heaven 
that  we  were  not  as  they,  when  the  blindness  of  these 
outer  barbarians  of  "  Gog  and  Magog  land  "  was  drawn 
for  us  by  skillful  pens,  and  served  out  to  us  with  all 


72  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  comments  that  self-complacency  could  suggest, 
A  conversion  in  the  future  was  foretold,  however;  this 
Chinese  infirmity  of  vision  should  not  last  forever;  the 
day,  we  were  told,  must  come  when  Studentships  in 
Political  Economy  should  be  founded  in  Pekin,  and 
Eicardo  take  the  place  of  Cou-fou-chow  in  Thibetian 
schools.  A  conversion  has  taken  place  of  late,  but  not 
that  hoped  for ;  or,  if  it  be  a  conversion  consistent  with 
the  truths  of  Economic  Science,  it  has  taken  a  strange 
shape.  The  wise  men  of  Canton  may  be  tempted, 
perhaps,  to  think  that  it  is  we  who  have  learnt  the 
wisdom  of  the  sages,  and  been  brought  back  into  the 
fold  of  the  great  master.  Chinese  immigration  is 
heavily  taxed  in  California;  taxed  to  the  point  of  pro- 
hibition in  Victoria;  and  absolutely  forbidden  under 
heavy  penalties  in  Louisiana  and  the  other  ex-rebel 
States. 

The  Chinaman  is  pushing  himself  to  the  fore 
wherever  his  presence  is  not  prohibited.  "We  find 
Chinese  helmsmen  and  quartermasters  in  the  service 
of  the  Messageries  and  Oriental  companies  receiving 
twice  the  wages  paid  to  Indian  Lascars.  We  hear  of 
the  importation  of  Chinese  laborers  into  India  for  rail- 
way and  for  drainage  works.  The  Chinaman  has  great 
vitality.  Of  the  cheap  races  the  Mongol  seems  .the 
most  pushing,  the  likeliest  to  conquer  in  the  fight.  It 
would  almost  seem  as  though  we  were  wrong  in  our 
common  scales  of  preference,  far  from  right  in  our  use 
of  the  terms  "superior"  and  "inferior"  races. 

A  well-taught  white  man  can  outreason  or  can  over- 
reach a  well-taught  Chinaman  or  negro.  But  under 
some  climatic  conditions,  the  negro  can  outwork  the 
white  man;  under  almost  all  conditions,  the  Chinaman 
^can  outwork  him.  Where  this  is  the  case,  is  it  not  the 
Chinaman  or  the  negro  that  should  be  called  the  better 


LABOR.  73 

man  ?  Call  him  what  we  may,  will  he  not  prove  his 
superiority  by  working  the  Englishman  off  the  soil  ? 
In  Florida  and  Mississippi  the  black  is  certainly  the 
better  man. 

Many  Victorians,  even  those  who  respect  and  admire 
the  Chinese,  are  in  favor  of  the  imposition  of  a  tax 
upon  the  yellow  immigrants,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
destruction  of  the  rising  Australian  nationality.  They 
fear  that  otherwise  they  will  live  to  see  the  English 
element  swamped  in  the  Asiatic  throughout  Australia. 
It  is  not  certain  that  we  may  not  some  day  have  to  en- 
counter a  similar  danger  in  Old  England. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  account  thus  given  of  the 
state  of  the  labor  question  in  Australia,  that  the 
colonial  handicraftsmen  stand  toward  those  of  the 
world  in  much  the  same  relative  position  as  that  held 
by  the  members  of  a  trade  union  toward  the  other 
workmen  of  the  same  trade.  The  limitation  of  immi- 
gration there  has  much  the  same  effects  as  the  limita- 
tion of  apprentices  in  a  single  trade  in  England.  It  is 
easy  to  say  that  the  difference  between  fellow-country- 
man and  foreigner  is  important;  that  while  it  is  an  un- 
fairness to  all  English  workmen  that  English  hatters 
should  limit  apprentices,  it  is  not  unfair  to  English 
hatters  that  Australian  hatters  should  limit  their  ap- 
prentices. For  my  own  part,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that,  fair  or  unfair  |— and  we  have  no  international 
moral  rule  generally  acknowledged  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion— we  might  at  least  say  to  Australia  that,  while 
she  throws  upon  us  the  chief  expenses  of  her  defense, 
she  is  hardly  in  a  position  to  refuse  to  aid  our  emi- 
grants. 

Day  by  day  the  labor  question  in  its  older  aspects 
becomes  of  less  and  less  importance.  The  relationship 
of  master  and  servant  is  rapidly  dying  the  death ;  co- 

VOL.  II.  7 


74  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

operative  farming  and  industrial  partnerships  must 
supersede  it  everywhere  at  no  distant  date.  In  these 
systems  we  shall  find  the  remedy  against  the  decline 
of  trade  with  which  the  English-speaking  countries  of 
the  earth  are  threatened. 

The  existing  system  of  labor  is  an ti- democratic;  it 
is  at  once  productive  of  and  founded  on  the  existence 
of  an  aristocracy  of  capital  and  a  servitude  of  work- 
men ;  and  our  English  democracies  cannot  afford  that 
half  their  citizens  should  be  dependent  laborers.  If 
manufactures  are  to  be  consistent  with  democracy, 
they  must  be  carried  on  in  shops  in  which  each  man 
shall  be  at  once  capitalist  and  handicraftsman.  Such 
institutions  are  already  in  existence  in  Massachusetts, 
in  Illinois,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  in  Sydney;  while  at 
Troy,  in  New  York  State,  there  is  a  great  iron  foundery, 
owned  from  roof  to  floor  by  the  men  who  work  in  it. 
It  is  not  enough  that  the  workman  should  share  in  the 
profits.  The  change  which,  continuing  through  the 
middle  ages  into  the  present  century,  has  at  last  every- 
where converted  the  relation  of  lord  and  slave  into  that 
of  master  and  hireling,  is  already  giving  place  to  the 
silent  revolution  which  is  steadily  substituting  for  this 
relationship  of  capital  and  labor  that  of  a  perfect  mar- 
riage, in  which  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist  shall  be 
one. 

Under  this  system  there  can  be  no  strikes,  no  petty 
trickery,  no  jealousy,  no  waste  or  time.  Each  man's 
individual  interest  is  coincident  with  that  of  all.  Where 
the  labor  is  that  of  a  brotherhood,  the  toil  becomes 
ennobled.  Were  industrial  partnerships  a  new  device, 
their  inventor  would  need  no  monument ;  his  would 
be  found  in  the  future  history  of  the  race.  As  it  is, 
this  latest  advance  of  Western  'civilization  is  but  a 
-return  to  the  earliest  and  nobleet  form  of  labor;  the 


WOMAN.  75 

Arabs,  the  Don  Cossacks,  the  Maori  tribes  are  all  co- 
operative farmers;  it  is  the  mission  of  the  English  race 
to  apply  the  ancient  principle  to  manufactures. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

WOMAN. 

IN  one  respect,  Victoria  stands  at  once  sadly  behind 
and  strangely  in  advance  of  other  democratic  coun- 
tries. Women,  or  at  least  some  women,  vote  at  the 
Lower  House  elections;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
legal  position  of  the  sex  is  almost  as  inferior  to  that  of 
man  as  it  is  in  England  or  the  East. 

At  an  election  held  some  few  years  ago,  female  rate- 
payers voted  everywhere  throughout  Victoria.  Upon 
examination,  it  was  found  that  a  new  registration  act 
had  directed  the  rate-books  to  be  used  as  a  basis  for 
the  preparation  of  the  electoral  lists,  and  that  women 
householders  had  been  legally  put  on  the  register, 
although  the  intention  of  the  legislature  was  not  ex- 
pressed, and  the  question  of  female  voting  had  not  been 
raised  during  the  debates.  Another  instance,  this,  of 
the  singular  way  in  which  in  truly  British  countries 
reforms  are  brought  about  by  accident,  and,  when  once 
become  facts,  are  allowed  to  stand.  There  is  no  more 
sign  of  general  adhesion  in  Australia  than  in  England 
to  the  doctrine  which  asserts  that  women,  as  well  as 
men,  being  interested  in  good  government,  should  have 
a  voice  in  the  selection  of  that  government  to  which 
they  are  forced  to  submit  themselves. 


76  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

As  far  as  concerns  their  social  position,  women  are 
as  badly  off  in  Australia  as  in  England.  Our  theory 
of  marriage — which  has  been  tersely  explained  thus : 
"  the  husband  and  wife  are  one,  and  the  husband  is  that 
one" — rules  as  absolutely  at  the  antipodes  as  it  does  in 
Yorkshire.  I  was  daily  forced  to  remember  the  men 
of  Kansas  and  Missouri,  and  the  widely  different  view 
they  take  of  these  matters  to  that  of  the  Australians. 
As  they  used  to  tell  me,  they  are  impatient  of  seeing 
their  women  ranked  with  "lunatics  and  idiots"  in  the 
catalogue  of  incapacities.  They  are  incapable  of  seeing 
that  women  are  much  better  represented  by  their  male 
friends  than  were  the  Southern  blacks  by  their  owners 
or  overseers.  They  believe  that  the  process  of  election 
would  not  be  more  purified  by  female  emancipation 
than  would  the  character  of  the  Parliaments  elected. 

The  Kansas  people  often  say  that  if  you  were  told 
that  there  existed  in  some  ideal  country  two  great  sec- 
tions of  a  race,  the  members  of  the  one  often  gross, 
often  vicious,  often  given  to  loud  talking,  to  swearing, 
to  drinking,  spitting,  chewing,  not  infrequently  cor- 
rupt; those  of  the  other  branch,  mild,  kind,  quiet, 
pure,  devout,  with  none  of  the  habitual  vices  of  the 
first-named  sect, — if  you  were  told  that  one  of  these 
branches  was  alone  to  elect  rulers  and  to  govern,  you 
would  at  once  say,  "Tell  us  where  this  happy  country 
is  that  basks  in  the  rule  of  such  a  godlike  people." 
"Stop  a  minute,"  says  your  informant,  "it  is  the  creat- 
ures I  described  first — the  men — who  rule ;  the  others 
are  only  women,  poor  silly  fools — imperfect  men,  I 
assure  you  ;  nothing  more." 

It  is  somewhat  the  fashion  to  say  that  the  so-called 
"extravagancies"  of  the  Kansas  folk  and  other  Amer- 
ican Western  men  arise  from  the  extraordinary  position 
given  to  their  women  by  the  disproportion  of  the  sexes. 


WOMAN.  77 

Now  in  all  the  Australian  colonies  the  men  vastly  out- 
number the  women,  yet  the  disproportion  has  none  of 
those  results  which  have  been  attributed  to  it  by  some 
writers  on  America.  In  New  South  Wales,  the  sexes 
are  as  250,000  to  200,000,  in  Victoria  370,000  to  280,000, 
in  New  Zealand  130,000  to  80,000,  in  Queensland 
60,000  to  40,000,  in  Tasmania  50,000  to  40,000,  in  West 
Australia  14,000  to  8000,  90,000  to  80,000  in  South 
Australia.  In  all  our  Southern  colonies  together,  there 
are  a  million  of  men  to  only  three-quarters  of  a  million 
of  women;  yet  with  all  this  disproportion,  which  far 
exceeds  that  in  Western  America,  not  only  have  the 
women  failed  to  acquire  any  great  share  of  power, 
political  or  social,  but  they  are  content  to  occupy  a 
position  not  relatively  superior  to  that  held  by  them  at 
home. 

The  "Sewing  Clubs"  of  the  war-time  are  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  good  deal  of  the  "woman  movement"  in 
America.  At  the  time  of  greatest  need,  the  ladies  of 
the  Northern  States  formed  themselves  into  associa- 
tions for  the  supply  of  lint,  of  linen,  and  of  comforts 
to  the  army:  the  women  of  a  district  would  meet 
together  daily  in  some  large  room,  and  sew,  and  chat 
while  they  were  sewing. 

The  British  section  of  the  Teutonic  race  seems  natu- 
rally inclined,  through  the  operation  of  its  old  interest- 
begotten  prejudices,  to  rank  women  where  Plato  placed 
them  in  the  "  Timseus,"  along  with  horses  and  draught 
cattle,  or  to  think  of  them  much  as  he  did  when  he 
said  that  all  the  brutes  derived  their  origin  from  man 
by  a  series  of  successive  degradations,  of  which  the 
first  was  from  man  to  woman.  There  is,  however,  one 
strong  reason  why  the  English  should,  in  America, 
have  laid  aside  their  prejudices  upon  this  point,  re- 
taining them  in  Australia,  where  the  conditions  are 

7* 


78  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

not  the  same.  Among  farming  peoples,  whose  women 
do  not  work  regularly  in  the  field,  the  woman  to 
whom  falls  the  household  and  superior  work  is  better 
oft'  than  she  is  among  town-dwelling  peoples.  The 
Americans  are  mainly  a  farming,  the  Australians  and 
British  mainly  a  town-dwelling,  people.  The  absence 
in  all  sections  of  our  race  of  regular  woman  labor  in 
the  field  seems  to  be  a  remnant  of  the  high  estimation 
in  which  women  were  held  by  our  former  ancestry.  In 
Britain  we  have,  until  the  last  few  years,  been  steadily 
retrograding  upon  this  point. 

It  is  a  serious  question  how  far  the  natural  prejudice 
of  the  English  mind  against  the  labor  of  what  we  call 
"inferior  races"  will  be  found  to  extend  to  half  the 
superior  race  itself.  How  will  English  laborers  receive 
the  inevitable  competition  of  women  in  many  of  their 
fields  ?  Woman  is  at  present  starved,  if  she  works  at 
all,  and  does  not  rest  content  in  dependence  upon 
some  man,  by  the*  terrible  lowness  of  wages  in  every 
employment  open  to  her,  and  this  low  rate  of  wages  is 
itself  the  direct  result  of  the  fewness  of  the  occupa- 
tions which  society  allows  her.  Where  a  man  can  see 
a  thousand  crafts  in  which  he  may  engage,  a  woman 
will  perhaps  be  permitted  to  find  ten.  A  hundred 
times  as  many  women  as  there  is  room  for  invade  each 
of  this  small  number  of  employments.  In  the  Aus- 
tralian labor-field  the  prospects  of  women  are  no  bet- 
ter than  they  are  in  Europe,  and  during  my  residence 
in  Melbourne  the  Council  of  the  Associated  Trades 
passed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  nothing  could 
justify  the  employment  of  women  in  any  kind  of  pro- 
ductive labor. 


VICTORIAN  PORTS.  79 


CHAPTER    IX. 

VICTORIAN   PORTS. 

ALL  allowance  being  made  for  the  great  number  of 
wide  roads  for  trade,  there  is  still  a  singular  absence  of 
traffic  in  the  Melbourne  streets.  Trade  may  be  said 
to  be  transacted  only  upon  paper  in  the  city,  while  the 
tallow,  grain,  and  wool,  which  form  the  basis  of  Aus- 
tralian commerce,  do  not  pass  through  Melbourne,  but 
skirt  it,  an-d  go  by  railway  to  Williamstown,  Sandridge, 
and  Geelong. 

Geelong,  once  expected  to  rival  Melbourne,  and  be- 
come the  first  port  of  all  Australia,  I  found  grass-grown 
and  half  deserted,  with  but  one  vessel  lying  at  her 
wharf.  At  Williamstown  a  great  fleet  of  first-class 
ships  was  moored  alongside  the  pier.  When  the  gold- 
find  at  Ballarat  took  place,  Geelong  rose  fast  as  the 
digging  port,  but  her  citizens  chose  to  complete  the 
railway  line  to  Melbourne  instead  of  first  opening  that 
to  Ballarat,  and  so  lost  all  the  up-country  trade.  Mel- 
bourne, having  once  obtained  the  lead,  soon  managed 
to  control  the  legislature,  and  grants  were  made  for 
the  Echuca  Eailroad,  which  tapped  the  Murray,  and 
brought  the  trade  of  Upper  Queensland  and  New  South 
Wales  down  to  Melbourne,  in  the  interest  of  the  ports 
of  Williamstown  and  Sandridge.  Not  content  with 
ruining  Geelong,  the  Melbourne  -men  have  set  them- 
selves to  ridicule  it.  One  of  their  stories  goes  that  the 
Geelong  streets  bear  such  a  fine  crop  of  grass,  that  a 
free  selector  has  applied  to  have  them  surveyed  and 


80  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

sold  to  him,  under  the  42d  clause  of  the  New  Land 
Act.  Another  story  tells  how  a  Geelongee  lately  died, 
and  went  to  heaven.  Peter,  opening  the  door  to  his 
knock,  asked,  "Where  from?"  "Geelong."  "Where?" 
said  Peter.  "Geelong."  "There's  no  such  place," 
replied  the  Apostle.  "In  Victoria,"  cried  the  colonist. 
"Fetch  Ham's  Australian  Atlas," -called  Peter;  and 
when  the  map  was  brought  and  the  spot  shown  to  him, 
he  replied,  "Well,  I  beg  your  pardon,  but  I  really 
never  had  any  one  here  from  that  place  before." 

If  Geelong  be  standing  still,  which  in  a  colony  is  the 
same  as  rapid  decline  would  be  with  us,  the  famed 
wheat  country  around  it  seems  as  inexhaustible  as  it 
ever  was.  The  whole  of  the  Barrabool  range,  from 
Ceres  to  Mount  Moriac,  is  one  great  golden  waving 
sheet,  save  where  it  is  broken  by  the  stunted  claret- 
vineyards.  Here  and  there  I  came  upon  a  group  of 
the  little  daughters  of  the  German  vine-dressers,  tend- 
ing and  trenching  the  plants,  with  the  round  eyes,  rosy 
cheeks,  and  shiny  pigtails  of  their  native  Rudesheim 
all  flourishing  beneath  the  Southern  Cross. 

The  colonial  vines  are  excellent ;  better,  indeed,  than 
the  growths  of  California,  which,  however,  they  resem- 
ble in  general  character.  The  wines  are  naturally  all 
Burgundies,  and  colonial  imitations  of  claret,  port,  and 
sherry  are  detestable,  and  the  hocks  but  little  better. 
The  Albury  hermitage  is  a  better  wine  than  can  be 
bought  in  Europe  at  its  price,  but  in  some  places  this 
wine  is  sold  as  Murray  Burgundy,  while  the  dealers 
foist  horrible  stuff  upon  you  under  the  name  of  her- 
mitage. Of  the  wines  of  New  South  Wales,  White 
Dallwood  is  a  fair  Sauterne,  and  White  Cawarra  a 
good  Chablis,  while  for  sweet  wines  the  Chasselas  is 
singularly  cheap ;  and  the  Tokay,  the  Shiraz,  and  the 
still  Muscat  are  remarkable. 


VICTORIAN  PORTS.  81 

Northwest  of  Geelong,  upon  the  summit  of  the  foot 
hills  of  the  dividing  range,  lies  Ballarat,  the  head- 
quarters of  deep  quartz  mining,  and  now  no  longer 
a  diggers'  camp,  but  a  graceful  city,  full  of  shady 
boulevards  and  noble  buildings,  and  with  a  stationary 
population  of  thirty  thousand.  My  first  visit  was  made 
in  the  company  of  the  prime  ministers  of  all  the  colo- 
nies, who  were  at  Melbourne  nominally  for  a  confer- 
ence, but  really  to  enjoy  a  holiday  and  the  International 
Exhibition.  With  that  extraordinary  generosity  in  the 
spending  of  other  people's  money  which  distinguishes 
colonial  cabinets,  the  Victorian  government  placed 
special  trains,  horses,  carriages,  and  hotels  at  our  dis- 
posal, the  result  of  which  was  that,  feted  everywhere, 
we  saw  nothing,  and  I  had  to  return  to  Ballarat  in  order 
even  to  go  through  the  mines. 

In  visiting  Lake  Learmouth  and  Clunes,  and  the 
mining  district  on  each  side  of  Ballarat,  I  found  my- 
self able  to  discover  the  date  of  settlement  by  the 
names  of  places,  as  one  finds  the  age  of  a  London 
suburb  by  the  titles  of  its  terraces.  The  dates  run  in 
a  wave  across  the  country.  St.  Arnaud  is  a  town  be- 
tween Ballarat  and  Castlemaiue,  and  Alma  lies  near 
to  it,  while  Balaklava  Hill  is  near  Ballarat,  where  also 
are  Raglan  and  Sebastopol.  Inkerman  lies  close  to 
Castlemaine,  and  Mount  Cathcart  bears  the  name  of 
the  general  killed  at  the  Two  Gun  battery,  while  the 
Malakhoff  diggings,  discovered  doubtless  toward  the 
end  of  the  war,  lie  to  the  northward,  in  the  Wimmera. 

Everywhere  I  found  the  interior  far  hotter  than  the 
coast,  but  free  from  the  sudden  changes  of  tempera- 
ture that  occur  in  Melbourne  twice  or  thrice  a  week 
throughout  the  summer,  and  are  dangerous  to  children 
and  to  persons  of  weak  health.  After  two  or  three 
days  of  the  hot  wind,  then  comes  a  night,  breathless, 


82  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

heavy,  still.  In  the  morning  the  sun  rises,  once  more 
fierce  and  red.  After  such  a  night  and  dawn,  I  have 
seen  the  shade  thermometer  in  the  cool  verandas  of 
the  Melbourne  Club  standing  at  95°  before  ten  o'clock, 
when  suddenly  the  sun  and  sky  would  change  from 
red  and  brown  to  gold  and  blue,  and  a  merry  breeze, 
dancing  up  from  the  ice-packs  of  the  South  Pole  and 
across  the  Antarctic  seas,  would  lower  the  temperature 
in  an  hour  to  60°  or  65°.  After  a  few  days  of  cold 
and  rain,  a  quiet  English  morning  would  be  cut  in 
half  about  eleven  by  a  sudden  slamming  of  doors  and 
whirling  of  dust  from  the  north  across  the  town,  while 
darkness  came  upon  the  streets.  Then  was  heard  the 
cry  of  "Shut  the  windows;  here's  a  hot  wind,"  and 
down  would  go  every  window,  barred  and  bolted, 
while  the  oldest  colonists  walked  out  to  enjoy  the  dry 
air  and  healthy  heat.  The  thick  walls  of  the  clubs  and 
private  houses  will  keep  out  the  heat  for  about  three 
days,  but  if,  as  sometimes  happens,  the  hot  wind  lasts 
longer,  then  the  walls  are  heated  through,  and  the 
nights  are  hardly  to  be  borne.  Up  country  the  settlers 
know  nothing  of  these  changes.  The  regular  irregu- 
larity is  peculiar  to  the  Melbourne  summer. 


TASMANIA.  83 


CHAPTER    X. 

TASMANIA. 

AFTER  the  parching  heat  of  Australia,  a  visit  to 
Tasmania  was  a  grateful  change.  Steaming  along 
Port  Dairy mple  and  up  the  Tamar  in  the  soft  sunlight 
of  an  English  afternoon,  we  were  able  to  look  upward, 
and  enjoy  the  charming  views  of  wood  and  river,  in- 
stead of  having  to  stand  with  downcast  head,  as  in  the 
blaze  of  the  Victorian  sun. 

The  beauty  of  the  Tamar  is  of  a  quiet  kind:  its 
scenery  like  that  of  the  non- Alpine  districts  of  the 
west  coast  of  New  Zealand,  but  softer  and  more  habit- 
able than  is  that  of  even  the  least  rude  portions  of 
these  islands.  To  one  fresh  from  the  baked  Australian 
plains,  there  is  likeness  between  any  green  and  humid 
land  and  the  last  unparched  country  that  he  may  have 
seen.  Still,  New  Zealand  cannot  show  fresher  cheeks 
nor  homes  more  cosy  than  those  of  the  Tamar  valley. 
Somersetshire  cannot  surpass  the  orchards  of  Tas- 
mania, nor  Devon  match  its  flowers. 

The  natural  resemblance  of  Maria  Van  Dieman's 
Land  (as  Tasman  called  it  after  his  betrothed)  to  Eng- 
land seems  to  have  struck  the  early  settlers.  In  sail- 
ing up  the  Tamar,  we  had  on  one  bank  the  County 
of  Dorset,  with  its  villages  touchingly  named  after 
those  at  home,  according  to  their  situations,  from  its 
Lulworth  Cove,  Corfe  Castle,  and  St.  Alban's  Head, 
round  to  Abbotsbury,  and,  on  our  right  hand,  Devon, 
with  its  Sidmouth,  Exeter,  and  Torquay. 


84  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Hurrying  through  Launceston — a  pretty  little  town, 
of  which  the  banks  and  post-oifice  are  models  of  simple 
architecture — I  passed  at  once  across  the  island  south- 
ward to  Hobarton,  the  capital.  The  scenery  on  the 
great  convict  road  is  not  impressive.  The  Tasmanian 
Mountains — detached  and  rugged  masses  of  basaltic 
rock,  from  four  to  five  thousand  feet  in  height — are 
wanting  in  grandeur  when  seen  from  a  distance,  with 
a  foreground  of  flat  corn-land.  It  is  disheartening, 
too,  in  an  English  colony,  to  see  half  the  houses  shut 
up  and  deserted,  and  acre  upon  acre  of  old  wheat-land 
abandoned  to  mimosa  scrub.  The  people  in  these 
older  portions  of  the  island  have  worked  their  lands  to 
death,  and  even  guano  seems  but  to  galvanize  them 
into  a  momentary  life.  Since  leaving  Virginia,  I  had 
seen  no  such  melancholy  sight. 

Nature  is  bountiful  enough :  in  the  world  there  is 
not  a  fairer  climate;  the  gum-trees  grow  to  350  feet, 
attesting  the  richness  of  the  soil;  and  the  giant  tree- 
ferns  are  never  injured  by  heat,  as  in  Australia,  nor 
by  cold,  as  in  New  Zealand.  All  the  fruits  of  Europe 
are  in  season  at  the  same  time,  and  the  Christmas 
dessert  at  Hobarton  often  consists  of  five  and  twenty 
distinct  fresh  fruits.  Even  more  than  Britain,  Tas- 
mania may  be  said  to  present  on  a  small  area  an 
epitome  of  the  globe:  mountain  and  plain,  forest  and 
rolling  prairie  land,'  rivers  and  grand  capes,  and  the 
noblest  harbor  in  the  world,  all  are  contained  in  a 
country  the  size  of  Ireland.  It  is  unhappily  not  only 
in  this  sense  that  Tasmania  is  the  Ireland  of  the 
South. 

Beautiful  as  is  the  view  of  Hobarton  from  Mount 
"Wellington, — the  spurs  in  the  foreground  clothed  with 
a  .crimson  carpet  by  a  heathlike  plant ;  the  city  nestled 
under  the  basaltic  columns  of  the  crags, — even  here  it 


TASMANIA.  85 

is  difficult  to  avoid  a  certain  gloom  when  the  eye, 
sweeping  over  the  vast  expanse  of  Storm  Bay  and 
D'Entrecasteaux  Sound,  discovers  only  three  great 
ships  in  a  harbor  fitted  to  contain  the  navies  of  the 
world. 

The  scene  first  of  the  horrible  deeds  of  early  convict 
days  at  Macquarie  Harbor  and  Port  Arthur,  and  later 
of  the  still  more  frightful  massacres  of  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants  of  the  isle,  Van  Dieman's  Land  has  never 
been  a  name  of  happy  omen,  and  now  the  island,  in 
changing  its  title,  seems  not  to  have  escaped  from  the 
former  blight.  The  poetry  of  the  English  village 
names  met  with  throughout  Tasmania  vanishes  before 
the  recollection  of  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
harsher  native  terms  came  to  be  supplanted.  Fifty 
years  ago,  our  colonists  found  in  Tasmania  a  powerful 
and  numerous  though  degraded  native  race.  At  this 
moment,  three  old  women  and  a  lad  who  dwell  on 
Gun-carriage  Rock,  in  Bass's  Straits,  are  all  who  re- 
main of  the  aboriginal  population  of  the  island. 

We  live  in  an  age  of  mild  humanity,  we  are  often 
told,  but,  whatever  the  polish  of  manner  and  of  minds 
in  the  old  country,  in  outlying  portions  of  the  empire 
there  is  110  lack  of  the  old  savagery  of  our  race.  Bat- 
tues of  the  natives  were  conducted  by  the  military  in 
Tasmania  not  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  and  are 
not  unknown  even  now  among  the  Queensland  set- 
tlers. Let  it  not  be  thought  that  Englishmen  go  out 
to  murder  natives  unprovoked ;  they  have  that  provo- 
cation for  which  even  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  used  to 
wait,  which  the  Brazilians  wait  for  now — the  provoca- 
tion of  robberies  committed  in  the  neighborhood  by 
natives  unknown.  It  is  not  that  there  is  no  offense  to 
punish,  it  is  that  the  punishment  is  indiscriminate,  that 
even  when  it  falls  upon  the  guilty  it  visits  men  who 

VOL.  II.  8 


86  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

know  no  better.  Where  one  wretched  untaught  native 
pilfers  from  a  sheep-station,  on  the  Queensland  Downs, 
a  dozen  will  be  shot  by  the  settlers,  "as  an  example," 
and  the  remainder  of  the  tribe  brought  back  to  the 
district  to  be  fed  and  kept,  until  whisky,  rum,  and 
other  devils'  missionaries  have  done  their  work. 

Nothing  will  persuade  the  rougher  class  of  Queens- 
land settlers  that  the  "black-fellow"  and  his  "jin" 
are  human.  They  tell  you  freely  that  they  look  upon 
the  native  Australian  as  an  ingenious  kind  of  monkey, 
and  that  it  is  not  for  us  to  talk  too  much  of  the  treat- 
ment of  the  "jins,"  or  native  women,  while  the  "  wrens" 
of  the  Curragh  exist  among  ourselves.  No  great  dis- 
tance appears  to  separate  us  from  the  days  when  the 
Spaniards  in  the  West  Indies  used  to  brand  on  the 
face  and  arms  all  the  natives  they  could  catch,  and 
gamble  them  away  for  wine. 

Though  not  more  than  three  or  four  million  acres 
out  of  seventeen  million  acres  of  land  in  Tasmania 
have  as  yet  been  alienated  by  the  crown,  the  popula- 
tion has  increased  only  by  15,000  in  the  last  ten  years. 
Such  is  the  indolence  of  the  settlers,  that  vast  tracts  of 
land  in  the  central  plain,  once  fertile  under  irrigation, 
have  been  allowed  to  fall  back  into  a  desert  state  from 
sheer  neglect  of  the  dams  and  conduits.  Though  iron 
and  coal  are  abundant,  they  are  seldom  if  ever  worked, 
and  one  house  in  every  thirty-two  in  the  whole  island 
is  licensed  for  the  sale  of  spirits,  of  which  the  annual 
consumption  exceeds  five  gallons  a  head  for  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  in  the  population.  Tasmania  reached 
her  maximum  of  revenue  in  1858,  and  her  maximum 
of  trade  in  1853. 

The  curse  of  the  country  is  the  indolence  of  its  lotus- 
eating  population,  who,  like  all  dwellers  in  climates 
cool  but  winterless,  are  content  to  dream  away  their 


GOVERNO  R      DAV  LY  S 
PROCLAM  ATION 


GOVERNOR   DAVEY'S   PROCLAMATIOX.-l' 


TASMANIA.  87 

lives  in  drowsiness  to  which  the  habits  of  a  hotter  but 
less  equable  clime  —  Queensland,  for  example  —  are 
energy  itself.  In  addition,  however,  to  this  natural 
cause  of  decline,  Van  Dieman's  Land  is  not  yet  free 
from  all  traces  of  the  convict  blood,  nor  from  the  evil 
effects  of  reliance  on  forced  labor.  It  is,  indeed,  but  a 
few  years  since  the  island  was  one  great  jail,  and  in 
1853  there  were  still  20,000  actual  convicts  in  the 
island.  The  old  free  settlers  will  tell  you  that  the 
deadly  shade  of  slave  labor  has  not  blighted  Jamaica 
more  thoroughly  than  that  of  convict  labor  has  Van 
Dieman's  Land. 

Seventy  miles  northwest  of  Hobarton  is  a  sheet  of 
water  called  Macquarie  Harbor,  the  deeds  wrought 
upon  the  shores  of  which  are  not  to  be  forgotten  in  a 
decade.  In  1823,  there  were  228  prisoners  at  Mac- 
quarie Harbor,  to  whom,  in  the  year,  229  floggings  and 
9925  lashes  were  ordered,  9100  lashes  being  actually 
inflicted.  The  cat  was,  by  order  of  the  authorities, 
soaked  in  salt  water  and  dried  in  the  sun  before  being 
used.  There  was  at  Macquarie  Harbor  one  convict 
overseer  who  took  a  delight  in  seeing  his  companions 
punished.  A  day  seldom  passed  without  five  or  six 
being  flogged  on  his  reports.  The  convicts  were  at 
his  mercy.  In  a  space  of  five  years,  during  which  the 
prisoners  at  Macquarie  Harbor  averaged  250  in  num- 
ber, there  were  835  floggings  and  32,723  lashes  admin- 
istered. In  the  same  five  years,  112  convicts  absconded 
from  this  settlement,  of  whom  10  were  killed  and  eaten 
by  their  companions,  75  perished  in  the  bush  with  or 
without  cannibalism,  two  were  captured  with  portions 
of  human  flesh  in  their  possession,  and  died  in  hospital," 
two  were  shot,  16  were  hanged  for  murder  and  canni- 
balism, and  seven  are  reported  to  have  made  good 
their  escape,  though  this  is  by  no  means  certain. 


88  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

It  has  been  stated  by  a  Catholic  missionary  bishop 
in  his  evidence  before  a  Royal  Commission,  that  when, 
after  a  meeting  at  one  of  the  stations,  he  read  out  to 
his  men  the  names  of  thirty-one  condemned  to  death, 
they  with  one  accord  fell  upon  their  knees,  and  solemnly 
thanked  God  that  they  were  to  be  delivered  from  that 
horrible  place.  Men  were  known  to  commit  murder 
that  they  might  be  sent  away  for  trial,  preferring  death 
to  Macquarie  Harbor. 

The  escapes  were  often  made  with  the  deliberate 
expectation  of  death,  the  men  perfectly  knowing  that 
they  would  have  to  draw  lots  for  which  should  be 
killed  and  eaten.  Nothing  has  ever  been  sworn  to  in 
the  history  of  the  world  which,  for  revolting  atrocity, 
can  compare  with  the  conduct  of  the  Pierce-Greenhill 
party  during  their  attempted  escape.  The  testimony 
of  Pierce  is  a  revelation  of  the  depths  of  degradation 
to  which  man  can  descend.  The  most  fearful  thought, 
when  we  hear  of  these  Tasmanian  horrors,  is  that  prob- 
ably many  of  those  subjected  to  them  were  originally 
guiltless.  If  only  one  in  a  thousand  was  an  innocent 
man,  four  human  beings  were  consigned  each  year  to 
hell  on  earth.  We  think,  too,  that  the  age  of  trans- 
portation for  mere  political  offenses  has  long  gone  by, 
yet  it  is  but  eleven  or  twelve  years  since  Mr.  Frost  re- 
ceived his  pardon,  after  serving  for  sixteen  years  amid 
the  horrors  of  Port  Arthur. 

Tasmania  has  never  been  able  to  rid  herself  of  the 
convict  population  in  any  great  degree,  for  the  free 
colonies  have  always  kept  a  jealous  watch  upon  her 
emigrants.  Even  at  the  time  of  the  great  gold-rush  to 
Victoria,  almost  every  "Tasmanian  bolter"  and  many 
a  suspected  but  innocent  man  was  seized  upon  his 
landing,  and  thrown  into  Pentridge  Jail,  to  toil  within 
its  twenty-foot  walls  till  death  should  come  to  his  re- 


TASMANIA.  89 

lief.  Even  now,  men  of  wealth  and  station  in  Victoria 
are  sometimes  discovered  to  have  been  "  bolters"  in  the 
digging  times,  and  are  at  the  mercy  of  their  neighbors 
and  the  police,  unless  the  governor  can  be  wheedled 
into  granting  pardons  for  their  former  deeds.  A 
wealthy  Victorian  was  arrested  as  a  "Tasmanian 
bolter"  while  I  was  in  the  colony. 

The  passport  system  is  still  in  force  in  the  free  colo- 
nies with  regard  to  passengers  arriving  from  penal 
settlements,  and  there  is  a  penalty  of  <£100  inflicted 
upon  captains  of  ships  bringing  convicts  into  Mel- 
bourne. The  conditional  pardons  granted  to  prisoners 
in  West  Australia  and  in  Tasmania  generally  contain 
words  permitting  the  convict  to  visit  any  portion  of  the 
world  except  the  British  Isles,  but  the  clause  is  a. mere 
dead  letter,  for  none  of  our  free  colonies  will  receive 
even  our  pardoned  convicts. 

It  is  hard  to  quarrel  with  the  course  the  colonies 
have  taken  in  this  matter,  for  to  them  the  transporta- 
tion system  appears  in  the  light  of  moral  vitriol-throw- 
ing;.still,  there  is  a  wide  distinction  to  be  drawn  be- 
tween the  action  of  the  New  South  Welsh  and  that  of 
the  New  Yorkers,  when  they  declared  to  a  British 
government  of  the  last  century,  that  nothing  should 
induce  them  to  accept  the  labor  of  "white  English 
slaves:"  the  Sydney  people  have  enjoyed  the  advant- 
ages of  the  system  they  now  blame.  Even  the  Vic- 
torians and  South  Australians,  who  have  never  had 
convicts  in  their  land,  can  be  met  by  argument.  The 
Australian  colonies,  it  might  be  urged,  were  planted 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  affording  a  suitable  soil  for  the 
reception  of  British  criminals :  in  face  of  this  fact, 
the  remonstrances  of  the  free  colonists  read  somewhat 
oddly,  for  it  would  seem  as  though  men  who  quitted, 
with  open  eyes,  Great  Britain  to  make  their  home  in 

8* 


90  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  spots  which  their  government  had  chosen  as  its 
giant  prisons  have  little  right  to  pretend  to  rouse  them- 
selves on  a  sudden,  and  cry  out  that  England  is  pour- 
ing the  scum  of  her  soil  on  to  a  free  land,  and  that 
they  must  rise  and  defend  themselves  against  the  griev- 
ous wrong.  "Weighing,  however,  calmly  the  good  and 
evil,  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  Victorians 
have  much  reason  to  object  to  a  system  which  sends 
to  another  country  a  man  who  is  too  bad  for  his  own, 
just  as  Jersey  rogues  are  transported  to  Southampton. 
The  Victorian  proposition  of  selecting  the  most  ruffianly 
of  the  colonial  expirees,  and  shipping  them  to  England 
in  exchange  for  the  convicts  that  we  might  send  to 
Australia,  was  but  a  plagiarism  on  the  conduct  of  the 
Virginians  in  a  similar  case,  who  quietly  began  to 
freight  a  ship  with  snakes. 

The  only  cure  for  Tasmania,  unless  one  is  to  be 
found  in  the  mere  lapse  of  years,  lies  in  annexation  to 
Victoria;  a  measure  strongly  wished  for  by  a  con- 
siderable party  in  each  of  the  colonies  concerned.  No 
two  countries  in  the  world  are  more  manifestly  des- 
tined by  nature  to  be  complementary  to  each  other. 

Owing  to  the  small  size  of  the  country,  and  the 
great  moral  influence  of  the  landed  gentry,  Tasmanian 
politics  are  singularly  peaceful.  For  the  Lower  House 
elections  the  suffrage  rests  upon  a  household,  not  a 
manhood  basis,  as  in  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales; 
and  for  the  Upper  House  it  is  placed  at  <£500  in  any 
property,  or  <£50  a  year  in  freehold  land.  Tasmanian 
society  is  cast  in  a  more  aristocratic  shape  than  is  that 
of  Queensland,  with  this  exception  the  most  oligarchi- 
cal of  all  our  colonies;  but  even  here,  as  in  the  other 
colonies  and  the  United  States,  the  ballot  is  supported 
by  the  Conservatives.  Unlike  what  generally  happens 
in  America,  the  vote  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  is 


TASMANIA.  91 

here  kept  secret,  bribery  is  unknown,  and,  the  public 
"nomination"  of  candidates  having  been  abolished, 
elections  pass  off  in  perfect  quiet.  In  the  course  of  a 
dozen  conversations  in  Tasmania,  I  met  with  one  man 
who  attacked  the  ballot.  He  was  the  first  person, 
aristocrat  or  democrat,  conservative  or  liberal,  male  or 
female,  silly  or  wise,  by  whom  I  had  found  the  ballot 
opposed  since  I  left  home. 

The  method  in  which  the  ballot  is  conducted  is 
simple  enough.  The  returning  officer  sits  in  an  outer 
room,  beyond  which  is  an  inner  chamber  with  only 
one  door,  but  with  a  desk.  The  voter  gives  his  name 
to  the  returning  officer,  and  receives  a  white  ticket 
bearing  his  number  on  the  register.  On  the  ticket 
the  names  of  the  candidates  are  printed  alphabetically, 
and  the  voter,  taking  the  paper  into  the  other  room, 
makes  a  cross  opposite  to  the  name  of  each  candidate 
for  whom  he  votesy  and  then  brings  the  paper  folded 
to  the  returning  officer,  who  puts  it  in  the  box.  In 
New  South  Wales  and  Victoria,  he  runs  his  pen 
through  all  the  names  excepting  those  for  which  he 
wishes  to  vote,  and  himself  deposits  the  ticket  in  the 
box,  the  returning  officer  watching  him,  to  see  that  he 
does  not  carry  out  his  ticket  to  show  it  to  his  bribers, 
and  then  send  it  in  again  by  a  man  on  his  own  side. 
One  scrutineer  for  each  candidate  watches  the  opening 
of  the  box.  In  New  South  Wales,  the  voting  papers, 
after  having  been  sealed  up,  are  kept  for  five  }^ears,  in 
order  to  allow  of  the  verification  of  the  number  of 
votes  said  to  have  been  cast;  but  in  Tasmania  they 
are  destroyed  immediately  after  the  declaration  of 
the  poll. 

Escaping  from  the  capital  and  its  Lilliputian  politics, 
I  sailed  up  the  Derwent  to  New  Norfolk.  The  river 
reminds  the  traveler  sometimes  of  the  Meuse,  but 


92  GEEATEE    BRITAIN. 

oftener  of  the  Dart,  and  unites  the  beauties  of  hoth 
streams.  The  scenery  is  exquisitely  set  in  a  frame- 
work of  hops ;  for  not  only  are  all  the  flats  covered 
with  luxuriant  bines,  but  the  hills  between  which  you 
survey  the  views  have  also  each  its  "garden,"  the 
bines  being  trained  upon  a  wire  trellis. 

A  lovely  ride  was  that  from  New  Norfolk  to  the 
Panshanger  salmon-ponds,  where  the  acclimatization 
of  the  English  fish  has  lately  been  attempted.  The 
track,  now  cut  along  the  river  cliff,  now  lost  in  the 
mimosa  scrub,  offers  a  succession  of  prospects,  each 
more  lovely  than  the  one  before  it  j  and  that  from  the 
ponds  themselves  is  a  repetition  of  the  view  along  the 
vale  of  the  Towy,  from  Steele's  house  near  Caer- 
marthen.  Trout  of  a  foot  long,  and  salmon  of  an  inch, 
rewarded  us  (in  the  spirit)  for  our  ride,  but  we  were 
called  on  to  express  our  belief  in  the  statement,  that 
salmon  "  returned  from  the  sea"  have  lately  been  seen 

in  the  river.  Father ,  the  Catholic  parish  priest, 

"that  saw  'em,"  is  the  hero  of  the  day,  and  his  past 
experiences  upon  the  Shannon  are  quoted  as  testi- 
monies to  his  infallibility  in  fish  questions.  My  hosts 
of  New  Norfolk  had  their  fears  lest  the  reverend  gen- 
tleman should  be  lynched,  if  it  were  finally  proved 
that  he  had  been  mistaken. 

The  salmon  madness  will  at  least  have  two  results : 
the  catalogue  of  indigenous  birds  will  be  reduced  to  a 
blank  sheet,  for  every  wretched  Tasmanian  bird  that 
never  saw  a  salmon  egg  in  all  its  life  is  shot  down  and 
nailed  to  a  post  for  fear  it  should  eat  the  ova;  and  the 
British  wasp  will  be  acclimatized  in  the  southern 
hemisphere.  One  is  known  to  have  arrived  in  the 
last  box  of  ova,  and  to  have  survived  with  apparent 
cheerfulness  his  one  hundred  days  in  ice.  Happy  fel- 
low, to  cross  the  line  in  so  cool  a  fashion ! 


TASMANIA.  93 

The  chief  drawbacks  to  Tasmanian  picnics  and  ex- 
cursions are  the  snakes,  which  are  as  numerous 
throughout  the  island  as  they  are  round  Sydney.  One 
of  the  convicts  in  a  letter  home  once  wrote:  "Parrots 
is  as  thick  as  crows,  and  snakes  is  very  bad,  fourteen 
to  sixteen  feet  long;"  but  in  sober  truth  the  snakes 
are  chiefly  small. 

The  wonderful  "snake  stories"  that  in  the  colonial 
papers  take  the  place  of  the  English  "triple  birth" 
and  "  gigantic  gooseberry"  are  all  written  in  vacation 
time  by  the  students  at  Melbourne  University,  but  a 
true  one  that  I  heard  in  Hobarton  is  too  good  to  be 
lost.  The  chief  justice  of  the  island,  who,  in  his  leisure 
time,  is  an  amateur  naturalist,  and  collects  specimens 
for  European  collections  in  his  walks,  told  me  that  it 
was  his  practice,  after  killing  a  snake,  to  carry  it  into 
Hobarton  tied  to  a  stick  by  a  double  lashing.  A  few 
days  before  my  visit,  on  entering  his  hall,  where  an 
hour  before  he  had  hung  his  stick  with  a  rare  snake 
in  readiness  for  the  government  naturalist,  he  found 
to  his  horror  that  the  viper  had  been  only  scotched, 
and  that  he  had  made  use  of  his  regained  life  to  free 
himself  from  the  string  which  confined  his  head  and 
neck.  He  was  still  tied  by  the  tail,  so  he  was  swing- 
ing to  and  fro,  or  "  squirming  around,"  as  some  Amer- 
icans would  say,  with  open  mouth  and  protruded 
tongue.  When  lassoing  with  a  piece  of  twine  had 
been  tried  in  vain,  my  friend  fetched  a  gun,  arid  suc- 
ceeded in  killing  the  snake  and  much  damaging  the 
stone-work  of  his  vestibule. 

After  a  week's  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Hobarton  I  again  crossed  the  island,  but  this  time  by 
a  night  of  piercing  moonlight  such  as  can  be  witnessed 
only  in  the  dry  air  of  the  far  south.  High  in  the  heav- 
ens, and  opposite  the  moon,  was  the  solemn  constel- 


94  GEE ATE R    BRITAIN. 

lation  of  the  Southern  Cross,  sharply  relieved  upon 
the  pitchy  background  of  the  Magellanic  clouds,  while 
the  weird-tinted  stars  which  vary  the  night-sky  of  the 
southern  hemisphere  stood  out  from  the  blue  firma- 
ment elsewhere.  The  next  day  I  was  again  in  Mel- 
bourne. 


CHAPTER    XL 

CONFEDERATION. 

MELBOURNE  is  unusually  gay,  for  at  a  shapely  palace 
in  the  center  of  the  city  the  second  great  Intercolonial 
Exhibition  is  being  held,  and,  as  its  last  days  are  draw- 
ing to  their  close,  fifty  thousand  people — a  great  num- 
ber for  the  colonies — visit  the  building  every  week. 
There  are  exhibitors  from  each  of  our  seven  southern 
colonies,  and  from  French  New  Caledonia,  Nether- 
landish India,  and  the  Mauritius.  It  is  strange  to 
remember  now  that  in  the  colonization  both  of  New 
Zealand  and  of  Australia,  we  were  the  successful  rivals 
of  the  French  only  after  having  been  behind  them  in 
awakening  to  the  advisability  of  an  occupation  of  thes^e 
countries.  In  the  case  of  New  Zealand,  the  French 
fleet  was  anticipated  three  several  times  by  the  fore- 
thought and  decision  of  our  naval  officers  on  the  sta- 
tion ;  and  in  the  case  of  Australia,  the  whole  south 
coast  was  actually  named  "La  Terre  Napoleon,"  and 
surveyed  for  colonization  by  Captain  Baudin  in  1800. 
New  Caledonia,  on  the  other  hand,  was  named  and 
occupied  by  ourselves,  and  afterward  abandoned  to 
the  French. 


GONFEDEEA  TION.  9  5 

The  present  remarkable  exhibition  of  the  products 
of  the  Australias,  coming  just  at  the  time  when  the 
border  customs  between  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales 
have  been  abolished  by  agreement,  and  when  all  seems 
to  point  to  the  formation  of  a  customs  union  between 
the  colonies,  leads  men  to  look  still  further  forward, 
and  to  expect  confederation.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  at 
this  conjuncture  that  the  Australian  Protectionists,  as 
a  rule,  refuse  to  be  protected  against  their  immediate 
neighbors,  just  as  those  of  America  protect  the  manu- 
factures of  the  Union  rather  than  of  single  States. 
They  tell  us  that  they  can  point,  with  regard  to  Eu- 
rope, to  pauper  labor,  but  that  they  have  no  case  as 
against  the  sister  colonies;  they  wish,  they  say,  to 
obtain  a  wide  market  for  the  sale  of  the  produce  of 
each  colony;  the  nationality  they  would  create  is  to  be 
Australian,  not  provincial. 

Already  there  is  postal  union,  and  a  partial  customs 
union,  and  confederation  itself,  however  distant  in 
fact,  has  been  very  lately  brought  about  in  the  spirit 
by  the  efforts  of  the  London  press,  one  well-known 
paper  having  three  times  in  a  single  article  called  the 
governor  of  New  South  Wales  by  the  sounding  title 
of  "  Governor-General  of  the  Australasian  colonies," 
to  which  he  has,  of  course,  not  the  faintest  claim. 

There  are  many  difficulties  in  the  way  of  confedera- 
tioft.  The  leading  merchants  and  squatters  of  Vic- 
toria are  in  favor  of  it;  but  not  so  those  of  the  poorer 
or  less  populous  colonies,  where  there  is  much  fear  of 
being  swamped.  The  costliness  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment of  New  Zealand  is  a  warning  against  over-hasty 
confederation.  Victoria,  too,  would  probably  insist 
upon  the  exclusion  of  West  Australia,  on  account  of 
her  convict  population.  The  continental  theory  is  un- 
dreamt of  by  Australians,  owing  to  their  having  always 


96  GEE  ATE  R    BRITAIN. 

been  inhabitants  of  comparatively  small  States,  and 
not,  like  dwellers  in  the  organized  territories  of  Amer- 
ica, potentially  citizens  of  a  vast  and  homogeneous 
empire. 

The  choice  of  capital  will,  here  as  in  Canada,  be  a 
matter  of  peculiar  difficulty.  It  is  to  be  hoped  by  all 
lovers  of  freedom  that  some  hitherto  unknown  village 
will  be  selected.  There  is  in  all  great  cities  a  strong 
tendency  to  Imperialism.  Bad  pavement,  much  noise, 
narrow  lanes,  blockaded  streets,  all  these  things  are  ill 
dealt  with  by  free  government,  we  are  told.  English- 
men who  have  been  in  Paris,  Americans  who  know  St. 
Petersburg,  forgetting  that  without  the  Emperor  the 
PreTet  is  impossible,  cry  out  that  London,  that  New 
York,  in  their  turn  need  a  Haussman.  In  this  tend- 
ency lies  a  terrible  danger  to  free  States  —  a  danger 
avoided,  however,  or  greatly  lessened,  by  the  seat  of 
the  legislature  being  placed,  as  in  Canada  and  the 
TJnited  States,  far  away  from  the  great  cities.  Were 
Melbourne  to  become  the  seat  of  government,  nothing 
could  prevent  the  distant  colonies  from  increasing  the 
already  gigantic  power  of  that  city  by  choosing  her 
merchants  as  their  representatives. 

The  bearing  of  confederation  upon  Imperial  interests 
is  a  more  simple  matter.  Although  union  will  tend 
to  the  earlier  independence  of  the  colonies,  yet^  if 
federated,  they  are  more  likely  to  be  a  valuable  ally 
than  they  could  be  if  remaining  so  many  separate 
countries.  They  would  also  be  a  stronger  enemy ;  but 
distance  will  make  all  their  wars  naval,  and  a  strong 
fleet  would  be  more  valuable  to  us  as  a  friend  than 
dangerous  as  an  enemy,  unless  in  the  case  of  a  coalition 
against  us,  in  which  it  would  probably  not  be  the 
interest  of  Australia  to  join. 

From  the  colonial  point  of  view,  federation  would 


CONFEDERA  TION.  9  7 

tend  to  secure  to  the  Australians  better  general  and 
local  government  than  they  possess  at  present.  It  is 
absurd  to  expect  that  colonial  governors  should  be 
upon  good  terms  with  their  charges  when  we  shift 
men  every  four  years — say  from  Demerara  to  New 
South  Wales,  or  from  Jamaica  to  Victoria.  The  un- 
happy governor  loses  half  a  year  in  moving  to  his 
post,  and  a  couple  of  years  in  coming  to  understand 
the  circumstances  of  his  new  province,  and  then  set- 
tles down  to  be  successful  in  the  ruling  of  educated 
whites  under  democratic  institutions  only  if  he  can 
entirely  throw  aside  the  whole  of  his  experience,  de- 
rived as  it  will  probably  have  been  from  the  despotic 
sway  over  blacks.  We  never  can  have  a  set  of  colonial 
governors  fit  for  Australia  until  the  Australian  gov- 
ernments are  made  a  separate  service,  and  entirely 
separated  from  the  West  Indies,  Africa,  and  Hong 
Kong. 

Besides  improving  the  government,  confederation 
would  lend  to  every  colonist  the  dignity  derived  from 
citizenship  of  a  great  country — a  point  the  importance 
of  which  will  not  be  contested  by  any  one  who  has 
been  in  America  since  the  war. 

It  is  not  easy  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  confedera- 
tion is  in  every  way  desirable.  If  it  leads  to  independ- 
ence, we  must  say  to  the  Australians  what  Houmai 
ta  Whiti  said  in  his  great  speech  to  the  progenitors  of 
the  Maori  race  when  they  were  quitting  Hawaiki: 
" Depart,  and  dwell  in  peace;  let  there  be  no  quarrel- 
ing among  you,  but  build  up  a  great  people." 


VOL.  II. 


GEE  ATE  B    BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

ADELAIDE. 

THE  capital  of  South  Australia  is  reputed  the  hottest 
of  all  the  cities  that  are  chiefly  inhabited  by  the  Eng- 
lish race,  and  as  I  neared  it  through  the  Backstairs 
Passage  into  the  Gulf  of  St.  Vincent,  past  Kangaroo 
Island,  and  still  more  upon  landing  at  Glenelg,  I  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  its  reputation  was  deserved. 
The  extreme  heat  which  characterizes  South  Australia 
is  to  some  extent  a  consequence  of  its  lying  as  far  north 
as  New  South  Wales  and  Queensland,  and  so  far  in- 
land as  to  escape  the  breeze  by  which  their  coasts  are 
visited ;  for  although  by  "  South  Australia"  we  should, 
in  the  southern  hemisphere,  naturally  understand  that 
portion  of  Australia  which  was  farthest  from  the 
tropics,  yet  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  whole  colony 
of  Victoria  lies  to  the  south  of  Adelaide,  that  neither 
of  the  great  southern  peninsulas  of  Australia  are  in, 
but  that  nearly  all  the  northernmost  points  of  the  con- 
tinent now  lie  within,  the  country  misnamed  "  South 
Australia." 

The  immense  northern  territory,  being  supposed  to 
be  valueless,  has  generously  been  made  a  present  of 
to  South  Australia,  which  thus  becomes  the  largest 
British  colony,  and  nearly  as  large  as  British  Hin- 
dostan.  If  the  great  expenditure  which  is  going  on 
succeeds  in  causing  the  discovery  of  any  good  land  at 
the  north,  it  will  of  course  at  once  be  made  into  a 
separate  colony.  The  only  important  result  that  seems 


ADELAIDE.  99 

likely  to  follow  from  this  annexation  to  South  Aus- 
tralia of  the  northern  territory  is  that  school-boys' 
geography  will  suffer ;  indeed,  I  should  say  that  a  total 
destruction  of  all  principle  in  the  next  generation 
would  be  the  inevitable  result  of  so  rude  a  blow  to 
confidence  in  books  and  masters  as  the  assurance  from 
a  teacher's  lips  that  the  two  most  remote  countries  of 
Australia  from  each  other  are  united  under  one  colonial 
government,  and  that  the  northernmost  points  of  the 
whole  continent  are  situated  in  South  Australia.  Boys 
will  probably  conclude  that  across  the  line  south  be- 
comes north  and  north  south,  and  that  in  Australia 
the  sun  rises  in  the  west. 

Instead  of  gold,  wheat,  sheep,  as  in  Victoria,  the 
staples  here  are  wheat,  sheep,  copper,  and  my  intro- 
duction to  South  Australia  was  characteristic  of  the 
colony,  for  I  found  in  Port  Adelaide,  where  I  first  set 
foot,  not  only  every  store  filled  to  overflowing,  but 
piles  of  wheat-sacks  in  the  roadways,  and  lines  of  wheat- 
cars  on  the  sidings  of  railways,  without  even  a  tar- 
paulin to  cover  the  grain. 

Of  all  the  mysteries  of  commerce,  those  that  concern 
the  wheat  and  flour  trade  are,  perhaps,  the  strangest 
to  the  uninitiated.  Breadstuff's  are  still  sent  from  Cali- 
fornia and  Chili  to  Victoria,  yet  from  Adelaide,  close 
at  hand,  wheat  is  being  sent  to  England  and  flour  to 
New  York ! 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  ultimately  Victoria  and 
Tasmania  will  at  least  succeed  in  feeding  themselves. 
It  i«  probable  that  neither  New  Zealand  nor  Queens- 
land will  find  it  to  their  interest  to  do  the  like. .  Wool- 
growing  in  the  former  and  cotton  and  wool  in  the  lat- 
ter will  continue  to  pay  better  than  wheat  in  the  greater 
portion  of  their  lands.  Their  granary,  and  that  possi- 
bly of  the  City  of  Sydney  itself,  will  be  found  in  South 


100  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Australia,  especially  if  land  capable  of  carrying  wheat 
be  discovered  to  the  westward  of  the  settlements  about 
Adelaide.  That  the  Australias,  Chili,  California, 
Oregon,  and  other  Pacific  States  can  ever  export 
largely  of  wheat  to  Europe  is  now  more  than  doubtful. 
If  manufactures  spring  up  on  this  side  the  world,  these 
countries,  whatever  their  fertility,  will  have  at  least 
enough  to  do  to  feed  themselves. 

As  I  entered  the  streets  of  the  "  farinaceous  village," 
as  Adelaide  is  called  by  conceited  Victorians,  I  was 
struck  with  the  amount  of  character  they  exhibit  both 
in  the  way  of  buildings,  of  faces,  and  of  dress.  The 
South  Australians  have  far  more  idea  of  adapting  their 
houses  and  clothes  to  their  climate  than  have  the  peo- 
ple of  the  other  colonies,  and  their  faces  adapt  them- 
selves. The  verandas  to  the  shops  are  sufficiently  con- 
tiguous to  form  a  perfect  piazza;  the  people  rise  early, 
and  water  the  sidewalk  in  front  of  their  houses ;  and 
you  never  meet  a  man  who  does  not  make  some  sacri- 
fice to  the  heat,  in  the  shape  of  puggree,  silk  coat,  or 
sun-helmet ;  but  the  women  are  nearly  as  unwise  here 
as  in  the  other  colonies,  and  persist  in  going  about  in 
shawls  and  colored  dresses.  Might  they  but  see  a  few 
of  the  Richmond  or  Baltimore  ladies  in  their  pure  white 
muslin  frocks,  and  die  of  envy,  for  the  dress  most  con- 
venient in  a  hot  dry  climate  is  also  the  most  beautiful 
under  its  bright  sun. 

The  German  element  is  strong  in  South  Australia, 
and  there  are  whole  villages  in  the  wheat-country  where 
English  is  never  spoken  ;  for  here,  as  in  America,  there 
has  been  no  mingling  of  the  races,  and  the  whole  diverg- 
ence from  the  British  types  is  traceable  to  climatic 
influences,  and  especially  dry  heat.  The  men  born 
here  are  thin,  and  fine-featured,  somewhat  like  the 
Pitcairn  Islanders,  while  the  women  are  all  alike — 


ADELAIDE.  101 

small,  pretty,  and  bright,  but  with  a  burnt-up  look. 
The  haggard  eye  might,  perhaps,  be  ascribed  to  the 
dreaded  presence  of  my  old  friend  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  the  brulot  sand-fly. 

The  inhabitants  of  all  hot  dry  countries  speak  from 
the  head,  and  not  the  chest,  and  the  English  in  Aus- 
tralia are  acquiring  this  habit;  you  seldom  find  a 
"  cornstalk"  who  speaks  well  from  the  chest. 

The  air  is  crisp  and  hot — crisper  and  hotter  even 
than  that  of  Melbourne.  The  shaded  thermometer 
upon  the  Victorian  coast  seldom  reaches  110°,  but  in 
the  town  of  Adelaide  117°  has  been  recorded  by  the 
government  astronomer.  Such  is  the  figure  of  the 
Australian  continent  that  Adelaide,  although  a  sea- 
port town,  lies  far  up  as  it  were  inland.  Catching  the 
heated  gales  from  three  of  the  cardinal  points,  Ade- 
laide has  a  summer  six  months  long,  and  is  exposed 
to  a  fearful  continuance  of  hot  winds ;  nevertheless, 
105°  at  Adelaide  is  easier  borne  than  95°  in  the  shade 
at  Sydney. 

Nothing  can  be  prettier  than  the  outskirts  of  the 
capital.  In  laying  out  Adelaide,  its  founders  have 
reserved  a  park  abt>ut  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width 
all  round  the  city.  This  gives  a  charming  drive  nine 
miles  long,  outside  which  again  are  the  olive-yards 
and  villas  of  the  citizens.  Hedges  of  the  yellow  cactus, 
or  of  the  graceful  Kangaroo  Island  acacia,  bound  the 
gardens,  and  the  pomegranate,  magnolia,  fig,  and  aloe 
grow  upon  every  lawn.  Five  miles  to  the  eastward 
a.re  the  cool  wooded  hills  of  the  Mount  Lofty  Range, 
on  the  tops  of  which  are  grown  the  English  fruits  for 
which  the  plains  afford  no  shade  or  moisture. 

Crossing  the  Adelaide  plains,  for  fifty  miles  by  rail- 
way, to  Kapunda,  I  beheld  one  great  wheat-field  with- 
out a  break.  The  country  was  finer  than  any  stretch 

9* 


102  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

of  equal  extent  in  California  or  Victoria,  and  looked  as 
though  the  crops  were  "  standing  " — which  in  one  sense 
they  were,  though  the  grain  was  long  since  "in."  The 
fact  is  that  they  use  the  Ridley  machines,  by  which  the 
ears  are  thrashed  out  without  any  cutting  of  the  straw, 
which  continues  to  stand,  and  which  is  finally  plowed 
in  at  the  farmer's  leisure,  except  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Adelaide.  There  would  be  a  golden  age  of  par- 
tridge-shooting in  Old  England  did  the  climate  and 
the  price  of  straw  allow  of  the  adoption  of  the  Ridley 
reaper.  Under  this  system,  South  Australia  grows  on 
the  average  six  times  as  much  wheat  as  she  can  use, 
whereas,  if  reaping  had  to  be  paid  for,  she  could  only 
grow  from  one  and  a  half  to  twice  as  much  as  would 
meet  the  home  demand. 

In  this  country,  as  in  America,  "bad  farming"  is 
found  to  pay,  for  with  cheap  land,  the  Ridley  reaper, 
and  good  markets,  light  crops  without  labor,  save  the 
peasant-proprietor's  own  toil,  pay  well  when  heavy 
crops  obtained  by  the  use  of  hired  labor  would  not  re- 
imburse the  capitalist.  The  amount  of  land  under 
cultivation  has  been  trebled  in  the  last  seven  years, 
and  half  a  million  acres  are  now  finder  wheat.  South 
Australia  has  this  year  produced  seven  times  as  much 
grain  as  she  can  consume,  and  twelve  acres  are  under 
wheat  for  every  adult  male  of  the  population  of  the 
colony. 

A  committee  has  been  lately  sitting  in  New  South 
Wales  "to  consider  the  state  of  the  colony."  To 
judge  from  the  evidence  taken  before  it,  the  members 
seemed  to  have  conceived  that  their  task  was  to  in- 
quire why  South  Australia  prospered  above  New  South 
Wales.  Frugality  of  the  people,  especially  of  the 
Germans,  and  fertility  of  the  soil  were  the  reasons 
-vhich  they  gave  for  the  result,  but  it  is  impossible  not 


ADELAIDE.  103 

to  see  that  the  success  of  South  Australia  is  but  another 
instance  of  the^riumph  of  small  proprietors,  of  whom 
there  are  now  some  seven  or  eight  thousand  in  the 
colony,  and  these  were  brought  here  by  the  adoption 
of  the  Wakefield  land  system. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  colony,  land  was  sold  at  a 
good  price  in  130-acre  sections,  with  one  acre  of  town- 
land  to  each  agricultural  section.  Now,  under  rules 
made  at  home,  but  confirmed  after  the  introduction 
of  self-government,  land  is  sold  by  auction,  with  a 
reserved  price  of  <£!  an  acre,  but  when  once  a  block 
has  passed  the  hammer,  it  can  forever  be  taken  up  at 
£1  the  acre  without  further  competition.  The  Land 
Fund  is  kept  separate  from  the  other  revenue,  and  a 
few  permanent  charges,  such  as  that  for  the  aborigines, 
being  paid  out  of  it,  the  remainder  is  divided  into 
three  portions,  of  which  two  are  destined  for  public 
works,  and  one  for  immigration. 

There  is  a  marvelous  contrast  to  be  drawn  between 
the  success  which  has  attended  the  Wakefield  system 
in  South  Australia  and  the  total  failure,  in  the  neigh- 
boring colony  of  West  Australia,  of  the  old  system, 
under  which  vast  tracts  of  land  being  alienated  for 
small  prices  to  the  crown,  there  remains  no  fund  for 
introducing  that  abundant  supply  of  labor  without 
which  the  land  is  useless. 

Adelaide  is  so  distant  from  Europe  that  no  immi- 
grants come  of  themselves,  and,  in  the  assisted  import- 
ation of  both  men  and  women,  the  relative  proportions 
of  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  that  exist  at  home  are 
carefully  preserved,  by  which  simple  precaution  the 
colony  is  saved  from  an  organic  change  of  type,  such 
as  that  which  threatens  all  America,  although  it  would, 
of  course,  be  idle  to  deny  that  the  restriction  is  aimed 
against  the  Irish. 


104  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

The  greatest  difficulty  of  young  countries  lies  in 
the  want  of  women :  not  only  is  this  a  bar  to  the 
natural  increase  of  population ;  it  is  a  deficiency  pre- 
ventive of  permanency,  destructive  of  religion  ;  where 
woman  is  not  there  can  be  no  home,  no  country. 

How  to  obtain  a  supply  of  marriageable  girls  is  a 
question  which  Canada,  Tasmania,  South  Australia, 
New  South  Wales,  have  each  in  their  turn  attempted 
to  solve  by  the  artificial  introduction  of  Irish  work- 
house girls.  The  difficulty  apparently  got  rid  of,  we 
begin  to  find  that  it  is  not  so  much  as  fairly  seen ;  we 
have  yet  to  look  it  squarely  in  the  face.  The  point  of 
the  matter  is  that  we  should  find  not  girls,  but  honest 
girls, — not  women  merely,  but  women  fit  to  bear  fam- 
ilies in  a  free  State. 

One  of  the  colonial  superintendents,  writing  of  a 
lately-received  batch  of  Irish  work-house  girls,  has  said 
that,  if  these  are  the  "  well-conducted  girls,  he  should 
be  anxious  to  see  a  few  of  the  evil-disposed."  While 
in  South  Australia,  I  read  the  details  of  the  landing 
of  a  similar  party  of  women  from  Limerick  work- 
house one  Sunday  afternoon  at  Point  Levi,  the  Lam- 
beth of  Quebec.  Although  supplied  by  the  city  au- 
thorities with  meat  and  drink,  and  ordered  to  leave 
for  Montreal  at  early  morning,  nothing  could  be  more 
abominable  than  their  conduct  in  the  mean  while. 
They  sold  baggage,  bonnets,  combs,  cloaks,  and  scarfs, 
keeping  on  nothing  but  their  crinolines  and  senseless 
finery.  With  the  pence  they  thus  collected  they  bought 
corn- whisky,  and  in  a  few  hours  were  yelling,  fighting, 
swearing,  wallowing  in  beastly  drunkenness;  and  by 
the  time  the  authorities  came  down  to  pack  them  off 
by  train,  they  were  as  fiends,  mad  with  rum  and  wisky. 
At  five  in  the  morning,  they  reached  the  Catholic 
Home  at  Montreal,  where  the  pious  nuns  were  shocked 


ADELAIDE.  105 

and  horrified  at  their  grossness  of  conduct  and  lewd 
speech ;  nothing  should  force  them,  they  declared,  ever 
again  to  take  into  their  peaceable  asylum  the  Irish 
work-house  girls.  This  was  no  exceptional  case :  the 
reports  from  South  Australia,  from  Tasmania,  can 
show  as  bad ;  and  in  Canada  such  conduct  on  the  part 
of  the  freshly-landed  girls  is  common.  A  Tasmanian 
magistrate  has  stated  in  evidence  before  a  Parliament- 
ary Committee  that  once  when  his  wife  was  in  ill  health 
he  went  to  one  of  the  immigration  offices,  and  applied 
for  a  decent  woman  to  attend  on  a  sick  lady.  The 
woman  was  duly  sent  down,  and  found  next  day  in 
her  room  lying  on  the  bed  in  a  state  best  pictured  in 
her  own  words :  "  Here  I  am  with  my  yard  of  clay, 
blowing  a  cloud,  you  say." 

It  is  evident  that  a  batch  of  thoroughly  bad  girls 
cost  a  colony  from  first'  to  last,  in  the  way  of  prisons, 
hospitals,  and  public  morals,  ten  times  as  much  as  the 
free  passages  across  the  seas  of  an  equal  number  of 
worthy  Irish  women,  free  from  the  work-house  taint. 
Of  one  of  these  gangs  which  landed  in  Quebec  not 
many  years  ago,  it  has  been  asserted  by  the  immigra- 
tion superintendents  that  the  traces  are  visible  to  this 
day,  for  wherever  the  women  went,  "  sin,  and  shame, 
and  death  were  in  their  track."  The  Irish  unions  have 
no  desire  in  the  matter  beyond  that  of  getting  rid  of 
their  most  abandoned  girls ;  their  interests  and  those 
of  the  colonies  they  supply  are  diametrically  opposed. 
No  inspection,  no  agreements,  no  supervision  can  be 
effective  in  the  face  of  facts  like  these.  The  class  tttat 
the  unions  can  afford  to  send,  Canada  and  Tasmania 
cannot  afford  to  keep.  Women  are  sent  out  with 
babies  in  their  arms ;  no  one  will  take  them  into  ser- 
vice because  the  children  are  in  the  way,  and  in  a  few 
weeks  they  fall  chargeable  on  one  of  the  colonial 


106  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

benevolent  societies,  to  be  kept  till  the  children  grow 
up  or  the  mothers  die..  Even  when  the  girls  are  not 
so  wholly  vicious  as  to  be  useless  in  service,  they  are 
utterly  ignorant  of  everything  they  ought  to  know.  Of 
neither  domestic  nor  farm-work  have  they  a  grain  of 
knowledge.  Of  thirteen  who  were  lately  sent  to  an 
up-country  town,  but  one  knew  how  to  cook,  or  wash, 
or  milk,  or  iron,  while  three  of  them  had  agreed  to 
refuse  employment  unless  they  were  engaged  to  serve 
together.  The  agents  are  at  their  wits'  ends ;  either 
the  girls  are  so  notoriously  infamous  in  their  ways  of 
life  that  no  one  will  hire  them,  or  else  they  are  so  ex- 
travagant in  their  new-found  "independence"  that  they 
on  their  side  will  not  be  hired.  Meanwhile  the  Irish 
authorities  lay  every  evil  upon  the  long  sea  voyage. 
They  say  that  they  select  the  best  of  girls,  but  a  few 
days  at  sea  suffice  to  demoralize  them. 

The  colonies  could  not  do  better  than  combine  for 
the  establishment  of  a  new  and  more  efficient  emigra- 
tion agency  in  Ireland.  To  avoid  the  evil,  by  as  far 
as  possible  refusing  to  meet  it  face  to  face  at  all,  South 
Australia  has  put  restrictions  on  her  Irish  immigration ; 
for  here  as  in  America  it  is  found  that  the  Scotch  and 
Germans  are  the  best  of  immigrants.  The  Scotch  are 
not  more  successful  in  Adelaide  than  everywhere  in 
the  known  world.  Half  the  most  prominent  among 
the  statesmen  of  the  Canadian  Confederation,  of  Vic- 
toria, and  of  Queensland,  are  born  Scots,  and  all  the 
great  merchants  of  India  are  of  the  same  nation. 
Whether  it  be  that  the  Scotch  emigrants  are  for  the 
most  part  men  of  better  education  than  those  of  other 
nations,  of  whose  citizens  only  the  poorest  and  most 
ignorant  are  known  to  emigrate,  or  whether  the  Scotch- 
man owes  his  uniform  success  in  every  climate  to  his 
perseverance  or  his  shrewdness,  the  fact  remains,  that 


ADELAIDE.  107 

wherever  abroad  you  come  across  a  Scotchman,  you 
invariably  find  him  prosperous  and  respected. 

The  Scotch  emigrant  is  a  man  who  leaves  Scotland 
because  he  wishes  to  rise  faster  and  higher  than  he 
can  at  home,  whereas  the  emigrant  Irishman  quits 
Gal  way  or  County  Cork  only  because  there  is  no  longer 
food  or  shelter  for  him  there.  The  Scotchman  crosses 
the  seas  in  calculating  contentment ;  the  Irishman  in 
sorrow  and  despair. 

At  the  Burra  Burra  and  Kapunda  copper-mines 
there  is  not  much  to  see,  so  my  last  days  in  South 
Australia  were  given  to  the  politics  of  the  colony, 
which  present  one  singular  feature.  For  the  elections 
to  the  Council  or  Upper  House,  for  which  the  fran- 
chise is  a  freehold  worth  <£50  or  a  leasehold  of  ,£20  a 
year,  the  whole  country  forms  but  a  single  district,  and 
the  majority  elect  their  men.  In  a  country  where 
party  feeling  runs  high,  such  a  system,  were  it  possi- 
ble, would  evidently  unite  almost  all  the  evils  conceiv- 
able in  a  plan  of  representation,  but  in  a  peaceful 
colony  it  undoubtedly  works  well.  Having  absolute 
power  in  their  hands,  the  majority  he  re,  as  in  the  selec- 
tion of  a  governor  for  an  American  State,  use  their 
position  with  great  prudence,  and  make  choice  of  the 
best  men  that  the  country  can  produce.  The  franchise 
for  the  Lower  House,  for  the  elections  to  which  the 
colony  is  "  districted,"  is  the  simple  one  of  six  months' 
residence,  which  with  the  ballot  works  irreproachably. 

The  day  that  I  left  Adelaide  was  also  that  upon 
which  Captain  Cadell,  the  opener  of  the  Murray  to 
trade,  sailed  with  his  naval  expedition  to  fix  upon  a 
capital  for  the  Northern  territory ;  that  coast  of  tropi- 
cal Australia  which  faces  the  Moluccas.  As  Governor 
Gilpin  had  pressed  me  to  stay,  he  pressed  me  to  go 
with  him,  making  as  an  inducement  a  promise  to  name 


108  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

after  me  either  "a  city"  or  a  headland.  He  said  he 
should  advise  me  to  select  the  headland,  because  that 
would  remain,  whereas  the  city  probably  would  not. 
When  I  pleaded  that  he  had  no  authority  to  carry  pas- 
sengers, he  offered  to  take  me  as  his  surgeon.  Hitherto 
the  expeditions  have  discovered  nothing  but  natives, 
mangroves,  alligators,  and  sea-slugs,  and  the  whole  of 
the  money  received  from  capitalists  at  home,  for 
300,000  acres  of  land  to  be  surveyed  and  handed  over 
to  them  in  North  Australia,  being  now  exhausted,  the 
government  are  seriously  thinking  of  reimbursing  the 
investors  and  giving  up  the  search  for  land.  It  would 
be  as  cheap  to  colonize  equatorial  Africa  from  Adelaide, 
as  tropical  Australia.  If  the  Northern  territory  is  ever 
to  be  rendered  habitable,  it  must  be  by  Queensland 
that  the  work  is  done. 

It  is  not  certain  that  North  Australia  may  not  be 
found  to  yield  gold  in  plenty.  In  a  little  known  manu- 
script of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  northwest  of 
Australia  is  called  "The  land  of  gold;"  and  we  are 
told  that  the  fishermen  of  Solor,  driven  on  to  this  land 
of  gold  by  stress  of  weather,  picked  up  in  a  few  hours 
their  boat  full  of  gold  nuggets,  and  returned  in  safety. 
They  never  dared  repeat  their  voyage,  on  account  of 
their  dread  of  the  unknown  seas ;  but  Manoel  Godinho 
de  Eredia  was  commissioned  by  the  Portuguese  Lord 
Admiral  of  India  to  explore  this  gold  land,  and  enrich 
the  crown  of  Portugal  by  the  capture  of  the  treasures 
it  contained.  It  would  be  strange  enough  if  gold 
came  to  be  discovered  on  the  northwest  coast,  in 
the  spot  from  which  the  Portuguese  reported  their 
discovery. 

By  dawn,  after  one  of  the  most  stifling  of  Australian 
nights,  I  left  Port  Adelaide  for  King  George's  Sound. 
A  long  narrow  belt  of  a  clear  red-yellow  light  lay 


TEANSPOR  TA  TION.  1 09 

glowing  along  the  horizon  to  the  east,  portending 
heat  and  drought;  elsewhere  the  skies  were  of  a  deep 
blue-black.  As  we  steamed  past  Kangaroo  Island, 
and  through  Investigator  Straits,  the  sun  shot  up 
from  the  tawny  plains,  and  the  hot  wind  from  the 
northern  desert,  rising  on  a  fc^auen  afioir  the  stillness 
of  the  night,  whirled  clouds  of  sand  over  the  surface 
of  the  bay. 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 

TRANSPORTATION. 

AFTER  five  days'  steady  steaming  across  the  great 
Australian  bight,  north  of  which  lies  the  true  "Terra 
Australia  incognita,"  I  reached  King  George's  Sound — 
"Le  Port  du  Roi  Georges  en  Australie,"  as  I  saw  it 
written  on  a  letter  in  the  jail.  At  the  shore  end  of 
a  great  land-locked  harbor,  the  little  houses  of  bright 
white  stone  that  make  up  the  town  of  Albany  peep 
out  from  among  geranium-covered  rocks.  The  climate, 
unlike  that  of  the  greater  portion  of  Australia  is  damp 
and  tropical,  and  the  dense  scrub  is  a  mass  of  flower- 
ing bushes,  with  bright  blue  and  scarlet  blooms  and 
curiously-cut  leaves. 

The  contrast  between  the  scenery  and  the  people 
of  West  Australia  is  great  indeed.  The  aboriginal 
inhabitants  of  Albany  were  represented  by  a  tribe  of 
filthy  natives — tall,  half  starved,  their  heads  bedaubed 
with  red  ochre,  and  their  faces  smeared  with  yellow 
clay;  the  "colonists"  by  a  gang  of  fiend-faced  con- 

VOL.  II.  10 


110  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

victs  working  in  chains  upon  the  esplanade,  and  a 
group  of  scowling  expirees*  hunting  a  monkey  with 
bull-dogs  on  the  pier,  while  the  native  women,  half 
clothed  in  tattered  kangaroo-skins,  came  slouching 
past  with  an  aspect  of  defiant  wretchedness.  Work  is 
never  done  in  West  Australia  unless  under  the  com- 
pulsion of  the  lash,  for  a  similar  degradation  of  lahor 
is  produced  by  the  use  of  convicts  as  by  that  of  slaves. 

Settled  at  an  earlier  date  than  was  South  Australia, 
West  Australia,  then  called  Swan  River,  although  one 
of  the  oldest  of  the  colonies,  was  so  soon  ruined  by 
the  free  gift  to  the  first  settlers  of  vast  territories  use- 
less without  labor,  that  in  1849  she  petitioned  to  be 
made  a  penal  settlement,  and  though  at  the  instance 
of  Victoria  transportation  to  the  Australias  has  now 
all  but  ceased,  Freemantle  Prison  is  still  the  most  con- 
siderable convict  establishment  we  possess  across  the 
seas. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit  there  were  10,000  convicts 
or  emancipists  within  the  "  colony,"  of  whom  1500 
were  in  prison,  1500  in  private  service  on  tickets-of- 
leave,  while  1500  had  served  out  their  time,  and  over 
5000  had  been  released  upon  conditional  pardons :  600 
of  the  convicts  had  arrived  from  England  in  1865. 
Out  of  a  total  population,  free  and  convict,  of  20,000, 
the  offenders  in  the  year  had  numbered  nearly  3500, 
or  more  than  one-sixth  of  the  people,  counting  women 
and  children. 

If  twenty  years  of  convict  labor  seem  to  have  done 
but  little  for  the  settlement,  they  have  at  least  enabled 
us  to  draw  the  moral,  that  transportation  and  free 
emigration  cannot  exist  side  by  side :  the  one  element 
must  overbear  and  destroy  the  other.  In  Western 
Australia,  the  convicts  and  their  keepers  form  two- 
thirds  of  the  whole  population,  and  the  district  is  a 


TEANSP  OR  TA  TION.  Ill 

great  English  prison,  not  a  colony,  and  exports  but  a 
little  wool,  a  little  sandal-wood,  and  a  little  cotton. 

Western  Australia  is  as  unpopular  with  the  convicts 
as  with  free  settlers :  fifty  or  sixty  convicts  have  suc- 
cessfully escaped  from  the  settlement  within  the  last 
few  years.  From  twenty  to  thirty  escapes  take  place 
annually,  but  the  men  are  usually  recaptured  within  a 
mouth  or  two,  although  sheltered  by  the  people,  the 
vast  majority  of  whom  are  ticket-of-leave  men  or  ex- 
convicts.  Absconders  receive  a  hundred  lashes  and 
one  year  in  the  chain-gang,  yet  from  sixty  to  seventy 
unsuccessful  attempts  at  escape  are  reported  every 
year. 

On  the  road  between  Albany  and  Hamilton  I  saw  a 
man  at  work  in  ponderous  irons.  The  sun  was  strik- 
ing down  on  him  in  a  way  that  none  can  fancy  who 
have  no  experience  of  Western  Australia  or  Bengal, 
and  his  labor  was  of  the  heaviest;  now  he  had  to  prise 
up  huge  rocks  with  a  crow-bar,  now  to  handle  pick  and 
shovel,  now  to  use  the  rammer,  under  the  eye  of  an 
armed  warder,  who  idled  in  the  shade  by  the  road- 
side. This  was  an  "  escape-man,"  thus  treated  with  a 
view  to  cause  him  to  cease  his  continual  endeavors  to 
get  away  from  Albany.  No  wonder  that  the  "  chain- 
gang"  system  is  a  failure,  and  the  number  both  of 
attempts  and  actual  escapes  heavier  under  it  than 
before  the  introduction  of  this  tremendous  punish- 
ment. 

Many  of  the  "  escapes  "  are  made  with  no  other  view 
than  to  obtain  a  momentary  change  of  scene.  On  the 
last  return  trip  of  the  ship  in  which  I  sailed  from  Ade- 
laide to  King  George's  Sound,  a  convict  coal-man  was 
found  built  up  in  the  coal-heap  on  deck :  he  and  his 
mates  at  Albany  had  drawn  lots  to  settle  which  of 
them  should  be  thus  packed  off  by  the  help  of  the 


112  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

others  "for  a  change."  Of  ultimate  escape  there  could 
be  no  chance ;  the  coal  on  deck  could  not  fail  to  be 
exhausted  within  a  day  or  two  after  leaving  port,  and 
this  they  knew.  When  he  emerged,  black,  half 
smothered,  and  nearly  starved,  from  his  hiding-place, 
he  allowed  himself  to  be  quietly  ironed,  and  so  kept 
till  the  ship  reached  Adelaide,  when  he  was  given  up 
to  the  authorities,  and  sent  back  to  Albany  for  punish- 
ment. Acts  of  this  class  are  common  enough  to  have 
received  a  name.  The  offenders  are  called  "bolters 
for  a  change." 

A  convict  has  been  known  when  marching  in  his 
gang  suddenly  to  lift  up  his  spade,  and  split  the  skull 
of  the  man  who  walked  in  front  of  him,  thus  courting 
a  certain  death  for  no  reason  but  to  escape  from  the 
monotony  of  toil.  Another  has  doubled  his  punish- 
ment for  fun  by  calling  out  to  the  magistrates,  "  Gentle- 
men, pray  remember  that  I  am  entitled  to  an  iron-gang, 
because  this  is  the  second  time  of  my  absconding." 

One  of  the  strangest  things  about  the  advance  of 
England  is  the  many-sided  character  of  the  form  of 
early  settlement:  Central  North  America  we  plant 
with  Mormons,  New  Zealand  with  the  runaways  of 
our  whaling  ships,  Tasmania  and  portions  of  Australia 
with  our  transported  felons.  Transportation  has  gone 
through  many  phases  since  the  system  took  its  rise  in 
the  exile  to  the  colonies  under  Charles  II.  of  the  moss- 
troopers of  Northumberland.  The  plan  of  forcing  the 
exiles  to  labor  as  slaves  on  the  plantations  was  intro- 
duced in  the  reign  of  George  II.,  and  by  an  Act  then 
passed  offenders  were  actually  put  up  to  auction,  and 
knocked  down  to  men  who  undertook  to  transport 
them,  and  make  what  they  could  of  their  labor.  In 
1786,  an  Order  in  Council  named  the  eastern  coast  of 
Australia  and  the  adjacent  islands  as  the  spot  to  which 


TEANSPOR  TA  TION.  113 

transportation  beyond  the  seas  should  be  directed,  and 
in  1787  the  black  bar  was  drawn  indelibly  across  the 
page  of  history  which  records  the  foundation  of  the 
colony  of  New  South  Wales.  From  that  time  to  the 
present  day  the  world  has  witnessed  the  portentous 
sight  of  great  countries  in  which  the  major  portion  of 
the  people,  the  whole  of  the  handicraftsmen,  were  con- 
victed felons. 

There  being  no  free  people  whatever  in  the  "  col- 
onies" when  first  formed,  the  governors  had  no  choice 
but  to  appoint  convicts  to  all  the  official  situations. 
The  consequence  was  robbery  and  corruption.  Re- 
corded sentences  were  altered  by  the  convict-clerks, 
free  pardons  and  grants  of  land  were  sold  for  money. 
The  convict  overseers  forced  their  gangmen  to  labor 
not  for  government,  but  for  themselves,  securing 
secrecy  by  the  unlimited  supply  of  rum  to  the  men, 
who  in  turn  bought  native  women  with  all  that  they 
could  spare.  On  the  sheep-stations  whole  herds  were 
stolen,  and  those  from  neighboring  lands  driven  in  to 
show  on  muster-days.  Enormous  fortunes  were  accumu- 
lated by  some  of  the  emancipists,  by  fraud  and  infamy 
rather  than  by  prudence,  we  are  told,  and  a  vast  num- 
ber of  convicts  were  soon  at  large  in  Sydney  town 
itself,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  police.  As  the 
settlements  grew  in  years  and  size,  the  sons  of  convict 
parents  grew  up  in  total  ignorance,  while  such  few 
free  settlers  as  arrived — "the  ancients,"  as  they  were 
styled,  or  "the  ancient  nobility  of  Botany  Bay" — were 
wholly  dependent  on  convict  tutors  for  the  education 
of  their  children — the  "cornstalks"  and  "currency 
girls;"  and  cock-fighting  was  the  chief  amusement  of 
both  sexes.  The  newspapers  were  without  exception 
conducted  by  gentleman  convicts,  or  "  specials,"  as 
they  were  called,  who  were  assigned  to  the  editors  for 

10* 


114  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

that  purpose,  and  the  police  force  itself  was  composed 
of  ticket-of-leave  men  and  "  emancipists."  Convicts 
were  thus  the  only  schoolmasters,  the  only  governesses, 
the  only  nurses,  the  only  journalists,  and,  as  there  were 
even  convict  clergymen  and  convict  university  pro- 
fessors, the  training  of  the  youth  of  the  land  was  com- 
mitted almost  exclusively  to  the  felon's  care. 

A  petition  sent  home  from  Tasmania  in  1848  is  sim- 
ple and  pathetic;  it  is  from  the  parents  and  guardians 
resident  in  Van  Dieman's  Land.  They  set  forth  that 
there  are  13,000  free  children  growing  up  in  the  colony, 
that  within  six  years  alone  24,000  convicts  have  been 
turned  into  the  island,  and  of  these  but  4000  were 
women.  The  result  is  that  their  children  are  brought 
up  in  the  midst  of  profligacy  and  degradation. 

The  lowest  depth  of  villainy,  if  in  such  universal  in- 
famy degrees  can  be  conceived,  was  to  be  met  with  in 
the  parties  working  in  the  "chain-gangs"  on  the  roads. 
"Assignees"  too  bad  even  for  the  whip  of  the  harsh- 
est, or  the  "beef  and  beer"  of  the  most  lenient  master, 
brutalized  still  further,  if  that  were  possible,  by  asso- 
ciation with  those  as  vile  as  themselves,  and  followed 
about  the  country  by  women  too  infamous  even  for 
service  in  the  houses  of  the  up-country  settlers,  or  the 
gin-palaces  of  the  towns,  worked  in  gangs  upon  the 
roads  by  day,  whenever  promises  of  spirits  or  the  hope 
of  tobacco  could  induce  them  to  work  at  all,  and  found 
a  compensation  for  such  unusual  toil  in  nightly  quitting 
their  camp,  and  traversing  the  country,  robbing  and 
murdering  those  they  met,  and  sacking  every  home- 
stead that  lay  in  their  track. 

The  clerk  in  charge  of  one  of  the  great  convict  bar- 
racks was  himself  a  convict,  and  had  an  understanding 
with  the  men  under  his  care  that  they  might  prowl 
about  at  night  and  rob  on  condition  that  they  should 


TRANSPORTATION.  115 

share  their  gains  with  him,  and  that,  if  they  were  found 
out,  he  should  himself  prosecute  them  for  being  absent 
without  leave.  Juries  were  composed  either  of  con- 
victs, or  of  publicans  dependent  on  the  convicts  for 
their  livelihood,  and  convictions  were  of  necessity 
extremely  rare.  In  a  plain  case  of  murder  the  judge 
was  known  to  say:  "If  I  don't  attend  to  the  recom- 
mendation to  mercy,  these  fellows  will  never  find  a 
man  guilty  again,"  and  jurymen  would  frequently 
hand  down  notes  to  the  counsel  for  the  defense,  and 
bid  him  give  himself  no  troubfe,  as  they  intended  to 
acquit  their  friend. 

The  lawyers  were  mostly  convicts,  and  perjury  in 
the  courts  was  rife.  It  has  been  given  in  evidence 
before  a  Royal  Commission  by  a  magistrate  of  New 
South  Wales  that  a  Sydney  free  immigrant  once  had 
a  tailor's  bill  sent  in  which  he  did  not  owe,  he  having 
been  but  a  few  weeks  in  the  colony.  He  instructed  a 
lawyer,  and  did  not  himself  appear  in  court.  He  after- 
ward heard  that  he  had  won  his  case,  for  the  tailor  had 
sworn  to  the  bill,  but  the  immigrant's  lawyer,  "to 
save  trouble,"  had  called  a  witness  who  swore  to  hav- 
ing paid  it,  which  'settled  the  case.  Sometimes  there 
were  not  only  convict  witnesses  and  convict  jurors,  but 
convict  judges. 

The  assignment  system  was  supposed  to  be  a  great 
improvement  upon  the  jail,  but  its  only  certain  result 
was  that  convict  master  and  convict  man  used  to  get 
drunk  together,  while  a  night  never  passed  without  a 
burglary  in  Sydney.  Many  of  the  convicts'  mistresses 
went  out  from  England  as  government  free  emigrants, 
taking  with  them  funds  subscribed  by  the  thieves  at 
home  and  money  obtained  by  the  robberies  for  which 
their  "fancy  men"  had  been  convicted,  and  on  their 
arrival  at  Sydney  succeeded  in  getting  their  paramours 


116  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

assigned  to  them  as  convict  servants.  Such  was  the 
disparity  of  the  sexes  that  the  term  "wife"  was  a 
mockery,  and  the  Female  Emigration  Society  and  the 
government  vied  with  each  other  in  sending  out  to 
Sydney  the  worst  women  in  all  London,  to  reinforce 
the  ranks  of  the  convict  girls  of  the  Paramatta  factory. 
Even  among  the  free  settlers,  marriage  soon  became 
extremely  rare.  Convicts  were  at  the  head  of  the 
colleges  and  benevolent  asylums;  the  custom-house 
officials  were  all  convicts;  one  of  the  occupants  of  the 
office  of  attorney-general  took  for  his  clerk  a  notorious 
convict,  who  was  actually  recommitted  to  Bathurst 
after  his  appointment,  and  yet  allowed  to  return  tc- 
Sydney  and  resume  his  duties. 

The  most  remarkable  peculiarity  of  the  assignment 
system  was  its  gross  uncertainty.  Some  assigned  con- 
victs spent  their  time  working  for  high  wages,  living 
and  drinking  with  their  masters;  others  were  mere 
slaves.  Whether,  however,  he  be  in  practice  well  or 
ill  treated,  in  the  assignment  or  apprenticeship  system 
the  convict  is,  under  whatever  name,  a  slave,  subject 
to  the  caprice  of  a  master  who,  though  he  cannot  him- 
self flog  his  "servant,"  can  have  him  flogged  by  writing 
a  note  or  sending  his  compliments  to  his  neighbor  the 
magistrate  on  the  next  run  or  fa'rm.  The  "  whipping- 
houses"  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama  had  their  parallel 
in  New  South  Wales ;  a  look  or  word  would  cause  the 
hurrying  of  the  servant  to  the  post  or  the  forge  as  a 
preliminary  to  a  month  in  the  chain-gang  "on  the 
roads."  On  the  other  hand,  nothing  under  the  assign- 
ment system  can  prevent  skilled  convict  workmen 
being  paid  and  pampered  by  their  masters,  whose  in- 
terest it  evidently  becomes  to  get  out  of  them  all  the 
work  possible  through  excessive  indulgence,  as  intel- 
ligent labor  cannot  be  produced  through  the  machinery 


TRANSPORTATION.  117 

of  the  whipping-post,  but  may  be  through  that  of  "  beef 
and  beer." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  true  interest  of  the 
free  settlers,  cruelty  was  in  practice  commoner  than 
indulgence.  Fifty  and  a  hundred  lashes,  months  of 
solitary  confinement,  years  of  labor  in  chains  upon 
the  roads,  were  laid  upon  convicts  for  such  petty 
offenses  as  brawling,  drunkenness,  and  disobedience. 
In  1835,  among  the  28,000  convicts  then  in  New 
South  Wales,  there  were  22,000  summary  convictions 
for  disorderly  or  dishonest  conduct,  and  in  a  year  the 
average  was  3000  floggings,  and  above  100,000  lashes. 
In  Tasmania,  where  the  convicts  then  numbered  15,000, 
the  summary  convictions  were  15,000  and  the  lashes 
50,000  a  year. 

The  criminal  returns  of  Tasmania  and  New  South 
Wales  ..contain  the  condemnation  of  the  transportation 
system.  In  the  single  year  of  1834,  one-seventh  of 
the  free  population  of  Van  Dieman's  Land  were  sum- 
marily convicted  of  drunkenness.  In  that  year,  in  a 
population  of  37,000, 15,000  were  convicted  before  the 
courts  for  various  offenses.  Over  a  hundred  persons 
a  year  were  at  that  time  sentenced  to  death  for  crimes 
of  violence  in  New  South  Wales  alone.  Less  than  a 
fourth  of  the  convicts  served  their  time  without  incur- 
ring additional  punishment  from  the  police,  and  those 
who  thus  escaped  proved  generally  in  after-life  the 
worst  of  all,  and  even  government  officials  were  forced 
into  admitting  that  transportation  demoralized  far 
more  persons  than  it  reformed.  Hundreds  of  assigned 
convicts  made  their  escape  to  the  back  country,  and 
became  bushrangers ;  many  got  down  to  the  coast, 
and  crossed  to  the  Pacific  islands,  whence  they  spread 
the  infamies  of  New  South  Wales  throughout  all  Poly- 
nesia. A  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 


118  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

reported,  in  words  characteristic  of  our  race,  that  these 
convicts  committed,  in  New  Zealand  and  the  Pacific, 
"  outrages  at  which  humanity  shudders,"  and  which 
were  to  be  deplored  as  being  "injurious  to  our  com- 
mercial interests  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe." 

Transportation  to  New  South  Wales  came  to  its  end 
none  too  soon  :  in  fifty  years,  75,000  convicts  had  been 
transported  to  that  colony,  and  30,000  to  the  little 
island  of  Tasmania  in  twenty  years. 

Were  there  no  other  argument  for  the  discounte- 
nance of  transportation,  it  would  be  almost  enough 
to  say  that  the  life  in  the  convict-ship  itself  makes 
the  reformation  of  transported  criminals  impossible. 
Where  many  bad  men  are  brought  together,  the  few 
not  wholly  corrupt  who  may  be  among  them  have  no 
opportunity  for  speech,  and  the  grain  of  good  that  may 
exist  in  every  heart  can  have  no  chance  for  life;  if  not 
inclination,  pride  at  least  leads  the  old  hand  to  put 
down  all  acts  that  are  not  vile,  all  words  that  are  not 
obscene.  Those  who  have  sailed  in  convict  company 
say  that  there  is  something  terrible  in  the  fiendish 
delight  that  the  "old  hands"  take  in  watching  the 
steady  degradation  of  the  "new  chums."  The  hard- 
ened criminals  invariably  meet  the  less  vile  with  out- 
rage, ridicule,  and  contempt,  and  the  better  men  soon 
succumb  to  ruffians  who  have  crime  for  their  profes- 
sion, and  for  all  their  relaxation  vice. 

To  describe  the  horrors  of  the  convict-ships,  we  are 
told,  would  be  impossible.  The  imagination  will  scarce 
suffice  to  call  up  dreams  so  hideous.  Four  months  of 
filthiness  in  a  floating  hell  sink  even  the  least  bad  to 
the  level  of  unteachable  brutality.  Mutiny  is  un- 
known; the  convicts  are  their  own  masters  and  the 
ship's,  but  the  shrewd  callousness  of  the  old  jail-bird 
teaches  all  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  even  by 


TRANSPORTATION.  119 

momentary  success.  Rage  and  violence  are  seldom 
seen,  but  there  is  a  humor  that  is  worse  than  blows, — 
conversation  that  transcends  all  crime  in  infamy. 

It  will  be  long  before  the  last  traces  of  convict  dis- 
ease disappear  from  Tasmania  and  New  South  Wales ; 
the  gold-find  has  done  much  to  purify  the  air,  free 
selection  may  lead  to  a  still  more  bright  advance, 
manufacturing  may  lend  its  help ;  but  years  must  go 
by  before  Tasmania  can  be  prosperous  or  Sydney 
moral.  Their  history  is  not  only  valuable  as  a  guide 
to  those  who  have  to  save  West  Australia,  as  General 
Bourke  and  Mr.  Wentworth  saved  New  South  Wales, 
but  as  an  example,  not  picked  from  ancient  rolls,  but 
from  the  records  of  a  system  founded  within  the 
memory  of  living  man,  and  still  existent,  of  what 
transportation  must  necessarily  be,  and  what  it  may 
easily  become. 

The  results  of  a  dispassionate  survey  of  the  trans- 
portation system  are  far  from  satisfactory.  If  deporta- 
tion be  considered  as  a  punishment,  it  would  be  hard 
to  find  a  worse.  Punishment  should  be  equable,  re- 
formatory, deterrent,  cheap.  Transportation  is  the 
most  costly  of  all  the  punishments  that  are  known  to 
us;  it  is  subject  to  variations  that  cannot  be  guarded 
against ;  it  is  severest  to  the  least  guilty  and  slightest 
to  the  most  hardened ;  it  morally  destroys  those  who 
have  some  good  remaining  in  them;  it  leaves  the  ruf- 
fianly malefactor  worse  if  possible  than  it  finds  him; 
and,  while  it  is  frightfully  cruel  and  vindictive  in  its 
character,  it  is  useless  as  a  deterrent  because  its  nature 
is  unknown  at  home.  Transportation  to  the  English 
thief  means  exile,  and  nothing  more;  it  is  only  after 
conviction,  when  far  away  from  his  uncaught  asso- 
ciates, that  he  comes  to  find  it  worse  than  death.  In- 
stead of  deterring,  transportation  tempts  to  crime ; 


120  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

instead  of  reforming,  it  debases  the  bad,  and  confirms 
in  villainy  the  already  infamous.  To  every  bad  man  it 
gives  the  worst  companions ;  the  infamous  are  to  be 
reformed  by  association  with  the  vile ;  while  its  effects 
upon  the  colonies  are  described  in  every  petition  of  the 
settlers,  and  testified  to  by  the  whole  history  of  our 
plantations  in  the  antipodes,  and  by  the  present  con- 
dition of  West  Australia  and  Tasmania,  from  which, 
however,  New  South  Wales  has  happily  escaped.  We 
have  come  at  last  to  transportation  in  its  most  limited 
and  restricted  sense;  the  only  remaining  step  is  to  be 
quit  of  it  altogether. 

In  conjunction  with  all  punishment,  we  should  secure 
some  means  of  separating  the  men  one  from  another 
as  soon  as  the  actual  punishment  is  terminated :  to 
settle  them  on  land,  to  settle  them  with  wives  where 
possible,  should  be  our  object.  The  work  which  really 
has  in  it  something  of  reformation  is  that  which  a  man 
has  to  do,  not  in  order  that  he  may  avoid  whipping, 
but  that  he  may  escape  starvation;  and  it  is  from  this 
point  of  view  that  transportation  is  defensible.  A  man, 
however  bad,  will  generally  become  a  useful  member 
of  society  and  a  not  altogether  neglectful  father  if 
allowed  to  settle  upon  land  away  from  his  old  asso- 
ciates; but  morbid  tendencies  of  every  kind  are 
strengthened  by  close  association  with  others  who  are 
laboring  under  a  like  infirmity:  and  where  the  former 
convicts  are  allowed  to  hang  together  in  towns,  nothing 
is  to  be  expected  better  than  that  which  is  actually 
found — namely,  a  state  of  society  where  wives  speedily 
become  as  villainous  as  their  husbands,  and  where  chil- 
dren are  brought  up  to  emulate  their  fathers'  crimes. 

To  keep  the  men  separate  from  each  other,  after  the 
expiration  of  the  sentence,  we  need  to  send  the  con- 
victs to  a  fairly  populous  country,  whence  arises  this 


TRANSPORTATION.  121 

great  difficulty:  if  we  send  convicts  to  a  populous 
colony,  we  are  met  at  once  by  a  cry  that  we  are  forc- 
ing the  workmen  of  the  colony  into  a  one-sided  com- 
petition ;  that  we  are  offering  an  unbearable  insult  to 
the  free  population ;  that,  in  attempting  to  reform  the 
felon,  in  allowing  him  to  be  absorbed  into  the  colonial 
society,  we  are  degrading  and  corrupting  the  whole 
community  on  the  chance  of  possible  benefit  to  our 
English  villain.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  send  our 
convicts  to  an  uninhabited  land,  such  as  New  South 
"Wales  and  Tasmania  were,  such  as  West  Australia  is 
now,  we  build  up  an  artificial  Pandemonium,  whither 
we  convey  at  the  public  cost  the  pick  and  cream  of  the 
ruffians  of  the  world,  to  form  a  community  of  which 
each  member  must  be  sufficiently  vile  of  himself  to 
corrupt  a  nation. 

If  by  care  the  difficulty  of  which  I  have  spoken  can 
be  avoided,  transportation  might  be  replaced  by  short 
sentences  and  solitary  confinement,  and  low  diet,  to  be 
followed  by  forced  exile,  under  regulations,  to  some 
selected  colony,  say  the  Ghauts  of  Eastern  Africa,  op- 
posite to  Madagascar,  or  the  highlands  that  skirt  the 
Zambesi  River.  Exile  after  punishment  may  often  be 
the  only  way  of  providing  for  convicts  who  would 
otherwise  be  forced  to  return  to  their  former  ways. 
The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  discharged  convicts  seek- 
ing employment  are  too  terrible  for  them  not  to  ac- 
cept joyfully  any  simple  plan  for  emigration  to  a  coun- 
try where  they  are  unknown. 

In  Western  Australia,  transportation  has  not  been 
made  subservient  to  colonization,  and  both  in  conse- 
quence have  failed. 

On  going  on  board  the  Bombay  at  King  George's 
Sound,  I  at  once  found  myself  in  the  East.  The  cap- 
tain's crew  of  Malays,  the  native  cooks  in  long  white 

VOL.  II.  11 


122  GEE  ATE  E  BRITAIN. 

gowns,  the  Bombay  serangs  in  dark-blue  turbans,  red 
cummerbunds,  and  green  or  yellow  trowsers ;  the  negro 
or  Abyssinian  stokers,  and  passengers  in  coats  of 
China-grass;  the  Hindoo  deck-sweepers  playing  on 
their  tomtoms  in  the  intervals  of  work;  the  punkahs 
below;  the  Hindostanee  names  for  every  one  on  deck; 
and,  above  all,  the  general  indolence  of  everybody,  all 
told  of  a  new  world. 

A  convict  clerk  superintended  the  coaling,  which 
took  place  before  we  left  the  harbor  for  Ceylon,  and 
I  remarked  that  the  dejection  of  his  countenance  ex- 
ceeded that  of  the  felon-laborers  who  worked  in  irons 
on  the  quay.  There  is  a  wide-spread  belief  in  England 
that  unfair  favor  is  shown  to  "  gentlemen  convicts." 
This  is  simply  not  the  case ;  every  educated  prisoner 
is  employed  at  in-door  work,  for  which  he  is  suited, 
and  not  at  road-making,  in  which  he  might  be  useless; 
but  there  are  few  cases  in  which  he  would  not  wish  to 
exchange  a  position  full  of  hopeless  degradation  for 
that  of  an  out-door  laborer,  who  passes  through  his 
daily  routine  drudgery  (far  from  the  prison)  unknown, 
and  perhaps  in  his  fancy  all  but  free.  The  longing  to 
change  the  mattock  for  the  pen  is  the  result  of  envy, 
and  confined  to  those  who,  if  listened  to,  would  prove 
incapable  of  pursuing  the  pen-driver's  occupation. 

Under  a  fair  and  freshening  breeze,  we  left  the  port 
of  Albany,  happy  to  escape  from  a  jail  the  size  of  In- 
dia, even  those  of  us  who  had  been  forced  to  pass  only 
a  few  days  in  West  Australia. 


AUSTRALIA.  123 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AUSTRALIA. 

PACING  the  deck  with  difficulty  as  the  ship  tore 
through  the  lava-covered  seas,  before  a  favoring  gale 
that  caught  us  off  Cape  Lewin,  some  of  us  discussed 
the  prospects  of  the  great  south  land  as  a  whole. 

In  Australia,  it  is  often  said,  we  have  a  second 
America  in  its  infancy ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
we  have  not  become  so  used  to  trace  the  march  of  em- 
pire on  a  westward  course,  through  Persia  and  Assy- 
ria, Greece  and  Rome,  then  by  Germany  to  England 
and  America,  that  we  are  too  readily  prepared 
to  accept  the  probability  of  its  onward  course  to  the 
Pacific. 

The  progress  of  Australia  has  been  singularly  rapid. 
In  1830,  her  population  was  under  40,000;  in  1860,  it 
numbered  1,500,000 ;  nevertheless,  it  is  questionable 
how  far  the  progress  will  continue.  The  natural  con- 
ditions of  America  in  Australia  are  exactly  reversed. 
All  the  best  lands  of  Australia  are  on  her  coast,  and 
these  are  already  taken  up  by  settlers.  Australia  has 
three-quarters  the  area  of  Europe,  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  she  will  ever  support  a  dense  population 
throughout  even  half  her  limits.  The  uses  of  the 
northern  territory  have  yet  to  be  discovered,  and  the 
interior  of  the  continent  is  far  from  being  tempting 
to  the  settler.  Upon  the  whole,  it  seems  likely  that 
almost  all  the  imperfectly-known  regions  of  Australia 
will  in  time  be  occupied  by  pastoral  crown  tenants, 


124  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

but  that  the  area  of  agricultural  operations  is  not 
likely  to  admit  of  indefinite  extension.  The  central 
district  of  Australia,  to  the  extent,  perhaps,  of  half 
the  entire  continent,  lies  too  far  north  for  winter  rains, 
too  far  south  for  tropical  wet  seasons,  and  in  these 
vast  solitudes  agriculture  may  be  pronounced  impos- 
sible, sheep-farming  difficult.  As  far  as  sufficient 
water  for  sheep  and  cattle-stations  is  concerned,  there 
will  be  no  difficulty  in  retaining  this  in  tanks  or  rais- 
ing it  by  means  of  wells,  and  the  wool,  tallow,  and 
even  meat,  will  be  carried  by  those  railways  for  which 
the  country  is  admirably  fitted,  while  the  construc- 
tion of  locks  upon  the  Murray  and  its  tributaries  will 
enable  steamers  to  carry  the  whole  trade  of  the 
Riverina.  So  far,  all  is  well,  but  the  arable  lands  of 
Australia  are  limited  by  the  rains,  and  apparently  the 
limit  is  a  sadly  narrow  one. 

Once  in  awhile,  a  heavy  winter  rain  appears  to  fall 
in  the  interior ;  grass  springs  up,  the  lagoons  are  filled, 
the  up-country  squatters  make  their  fortunes,  and  all 
goes  prosperously  for  a  time.  Accounts  reach  the 
coast  cities  of  the  astonishing  fertility  of  the  interior, 
and  hundreds  of  settlers  set  off  to  the  remotest  dis- 
tricts. Two  or  three  years  of  drought  then  follow, 
and  all  the  more  enterprising  squatters  are  soon  ruined, 
with  a  gain,  however,  sometimes  of  a  few  thousand 
square  miles  of  country  to  civilization. 

Hitherto  the  Australians  have  not  made  so  much  as 
they  should  have  done  of  the  country  that  is  within 
their  reach.  The  want  of  railroads  is  incredible.  There 
are  but  some  400  miles  of  railway  in  all  Australia — far 
less  than  the  amount  possessed  by  the  single  infant 
State  of  Wisconsin.  The  sums  spent  upon  the  Vic- 
torian lines  have  deterred  the  colonists  from  com- 
pleting their  railway  system:  X10,000,000  sterling 


AUSTRALIA.  125 

were  spent  upon  200  miles  of  road,  through  easy 
country  in  which  the  land  cost  nothing.  The  United 
States  have  made  nearly  40,000  miles  of  railroad  for 
less  than  £300,000,000  sterling;  Canada  made  her 
2000  miles  for  £20,000,000,  or  ten  times  as  much  rail- 
road as  Victoria  for  only  twice  the  money.  Cuha  has 
already  more  miles  of  railroad  than  all  Australia. 

Small  as  are  the  inhabited  portions  of  Australia 
when  compared  with  the  corresponding  divisions  of 
the  United  States,  this  country  nevertheless  to  English 
eyes  is  huge  enough.  The  part  of  Queensland  already 
peopled  is  five  times  larger  than  the  United  Kingdom. 
South  Australia  and  West  Australia  are  each  of  them 
nearly  as  large  as  British  India,  but  of  these  colonies 
the  greater  part  is  desert.  Fertile  Victoria,  the  size  of 
Great  Britain,  is  only  a  thirty-fourth  part  of  Australia. 

In  face  of  the  comparatively  small  amount  of  good 
agricultural  country  known  to  exist  in  Australia,  the 
disproportionate  size  of  the  great  cities  shows  out  more 
clearly  than  ever.  Even  Melbourne,  when  it  comes  to 
be  examined,  has  too  much  the  air  of  a  magnified 
Hobart,  of  a  city  with  no  country  at  its  back,  of  a 
steam-hammer  set  up  to  crack  nuts.  Queensland  is  at 
present  free  from  the  burden  of  gigantic  cities,  but 
then  Queensland  is  in  greater  danger  of  becoming 
what  is  in  reality  a  slave  republic. 

Morally  and  intellectually,  at  all  events,  the  colonies 
are  thriving.  A  literature  is  springing  up,  a  national 
character  is  being  grafted  upon  the  good  English  stock. 
What  shape  the  Australian  mind  will  take  is  at  pres- 
ent somewhat  doubtful.  In  addition  to  considerable 
shrewdness  and  purely  Saxon  capacity  and  willingness 
to  combine  for  local  objects,  we  find  in  Australia  an 
admirable  love  of  simple- mirth,  and  a  serious  distaste 
for  prolonged  labor  in  one  direction,  while  the  down- 

11* 


126  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

Tightness  and  determination  in  the  pursuit  of  truth, 
remarkable  in  America,  are  less  noticeable  here. 

The  extravagance  begotten  of  the  tradition  of  con- 
vict times  has  not  been  without  effect,  and  the  settlers 
waste  annually,  it  is  computed,  food  which  would 
support  in  Europe  a  population  of  twice  their  numbers. 

This  wastefulness  is  perhaps,  however,  in  some  de- 
gree a  consequence  of  the  necessary  habits  of  a  pas- 
toral people.  The  8000  tons  of  tallow  exported  annually 
by  the  Australias  are  said  to  represent  the  boiling 
down  of  sheep  enough  to  feed  half  a  million  of  people 
for  a  twelvemonth. 

Australian  manners,  like  the  American,  resemble 
the  French  rather  than  the  British — a  resemblance 
traceable,  perhaps,  to  the  essential  democracy  of  Aus- 
tralia, America,  and  France.  One  surface  point  which 
catches  the  eye  in  any  Australian  ball-room,  or  on  any 
race-course,  is  clearly  to  be  referred  to  the  habit  of  mind 
produced  by  democracy — the  fact,  namely,  that  the 
women  dress  with  great  expense  and  care,  the  men 
with  none  whatever.  This,  as  a  rule,  is  true  of  Amer- 
icans, Australians,  and  French. 

Unlike  as  are  the  Australians  to  the  British,  there 
is  nevertheless  a  singular  mimicry  of  British  forms 
and  ceremonies  in  the  colonies,  which  is  extended  to 
the  nioet  trifling  details  of  public  life.  Twice  in  Aus- 
tralia was  I  invited  to  ministerial  dinners,  given  to 
mark  the  approaching  close  of  the  session ;  twice  also 
was  I  present  at  university  celebrations,  in  which  home 
whimsicalities  were  closely  copied.  The  governors' 
messages  to  the  Colonial  Parliaments  are  travesties  of 
those  which  custom  in  England  leads  us  to  call  "  the 
Queen's."  The  very  phraseology  is  closely  followed. 
We  find  Sir  J.  Manners  Button  gravely  saying :  "  The 
representatives  of  the  government  of  New  South  Wales 


AUSTRALIA.  127 

and  of  my  government  have  agreed  to  an  arrangement 
on  the  border  duties  .  .  ."  The- "my"  in  a  democratic 
country  like  Victoria  strikes  a  stranger  as  pre-emi- 
nently incongruous,  if  not  absurd. 

The  imitation  of  Cambridge  forms  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Sydney  is  singularly  close.  One  almost  ex- 
pects to  see  the  familiar  blue  gown  of  the  "  bull-dog" 
thrown  across  the  arm  of  the  first  college  servant  met 
within  its  precincts.  Chancellor,  Vice-chancellor, 
Senate,  Syndicates,  and  even  Proctors,  all  are  here  in 
the  antipodes.  Registrar,  professors,  "seniors,"  fees, 
and  "petitions  with  the  University  seal  attached;" 
"  Board  of  Classical  Studies" — the  whole  corporation 
sits  in  borrowed  plumage ;  the  very  names  of  the  col- 
leges are  being  imitated :  we  find  already  a  St.  John's. 
The  Calendar  reads  like  a  parody  on  the  volume  is- 
sued every  March  by  Messrs.  Deighton.  Rules  upon 
matriculation,  upon  the  granting  of  testamurs  ;  prize- 
books  stamped  with  college  arms  are  named,  ad  eundem 
degrees  are  known,  and  we  have  imitations  of  phrase- 
ology even  in  the  announcement  of  prizes  to  "the 
most  distinguished  candidates  for  honors  in  each  of 
the  aforesaid  schools,"  and  in  the  list  of  subjects  for 
the  Moral  Science  tripos.  Lent  Term,  Trinity  Term, 
Michaelmas  Term,  take  the  place  of  the  Spring,  Sum- 
mer, and  Fall  Terms  of  the  less  pretentious  institutions 
in  America,  and  the  height  of  absurdity  is  reached  in 
the  regulations  upon  "  academic  costume,"  and  on  the 
"  respectful  salutation"  by  undergraduates  of  the  "  fel- 
lows and  professors"  of  the  University.  The  situation 
on  a  hot-wind  day  of  a  member  of  the  Senate,  in 
"black  silk  gown,  with  hood  of  scarlet  cloth  edged 
with  white  fur,  and  lined  with  blue  silk,  black  velvet 
trencher  cap,"  all  in  addition  to  his  ordinary  clothing, 
it  is  to  be  presumed,  can  be  imagined  only  by  those 


128  GEEATER   BRITAIN. 

who  know  what  hot  winds  are.  We  English  are  great 
acclimatizers :  we  have  carried  trial  by  jury  to  Bengal, 
tenant-right  to  Oude,  and  caps  and  gowns  to  be  worn 
over  loongee  and  paejama  at  Calcutta  University. 
"Who  are  we,  that  we  should  cry  out  against  the 
French  for  "  carrying  France  about  with  them  every- 
where" ? 

The  objects  of  the  founders  are  set  forth  in  the 
charter  as  "  the  advancement  of  religion  and  morality, 
and  the  promotion  of  useful  knowledge ;"  but  as  there 
is  no  theological  faculty,  no  religious  test  or  exercise 
whatever,  the  philosophy  of  the  first  portion  of  the 
phrase  is  not  easily  understood. 

In  no  Western  institutions  is  the  radicalism  of  West- 
ern thought  so  thoroughly  manifested  as  in  the  Uni- 
versities ;  in  no  English  colonial  institutions  is  Conser- 
vatism so  manifest.  The  contrast  between  Michigan 
and  Sydney  is  far  more  striking  than  that  between 
Harvard  and  old  Cambridge. 

Of  the  religious  position  of  Australia  there  is  little 
to  be  said :  the  Wesleyans,  Catholics,  and  Presbyte- 
rians are  stronger,  and  the  other  denominations  weaker, 
than  they  are  at  home.  The  general  mingling  of  in- 
congruous objects  and  of  conflicting  races,  character- 
istic of  colonial  life,  extends  to  religious  buildings. 
The  graceful  Wesleyan  church,  the  Chinese  joss-house, 
and  the  Catholic  cathedral  stand  not  far  apart  in  Mel- 
bourne. In  Australia,  the  mixture  of  blood  is  not  yet 
great.  In  South  Australia,  where  it  is  most  complete, 
the  Catholics  and  Wesleyans  have  great  strength. 
Anglicanism  is  naturally  strongest  where  the  race  is 
most  exclusively  British — in  Tasmania  and  New  South 
Wales. 

As  far  as  the  coast  tracts  are  concerned,  Australia, 
as  will  be  seen  from  what  has  been  said  of  the  indi- 


AUSTRALIA.  129 

vidual  colonies,  is  rapidly  ceasing  to  be  a  land  of  great 
tenancies,  and  becoming  a  land  of  small  freeholds,  each 
cultivated  by  its  owner.  It  need  hardly  be  pointed 
out  that,  in  the  interests  of  the  country  and  of  the  race, 
this  is  a  happy  change.  When  English  rural  laborers 
commence  to  fully  realize  the  misery  of  their  position, 
they  will  find  not  only  America,  but  Australia  also, 
open  to  them  as  a  refuge  and  future  home.  Looming 
in  the  distance,  we  still,  however,  see  the  American 
problem  of  whether  the  Englishman  can  live  out  of 
England.  Can  he  thrive  except  where  mist  and  damp 
preserve  the  juices  of  his  frame  ?  He  comes  from  the 
fogs  of  the  Baltic  shores,  and  from  the  Flemish  low- 
lands ;  gains  in  vigor  in  the  south  island  of  New  Zea- 
land. In  Australia  and  America — hot  and  dry — the 
type  has  already  changed.  Will  it  eventually  disap- 
pear ? 

It  is  still  an  open  question  whether  the  change  of 
type  among  the  English  in  America  and  Australia  is 
a  climatic  adaptation  on  the  part  of  nature,  or  a  tem- 
porary divergence  produced  by  abnormal  causes,  and 
capable  of  being  modified  by  care. 

Before  we  had  done  our  talk,  the  ship  was  pooped 
by  a  green  sea,  which,  curling  in  over  her  taffrail, 
swept  her  decks  from  end  to  end,  and  our  helmsmen, 
although  regular  old  "  hard-a-weather"  fellows,  had 
difficulty  in  keeping  her  upon  her  course.  It  was  the 
last  of  the  gale,  and  when  we  made  up  our  beds  upon 
the  skylights,  the  heavens  were  clear  of  scud,  though 
the  moon  was  still  craped  with  a  ceaseless  roll  of  cloud. 


130  GEE  ATE  E  BEITAIN. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

COLONIES. 

WHEN  a  Briton  takes  a  survey  of  the  colonies,  he 
finds  much  matter  for  surprise  in  the  one-sided  nature 
of  the  partnership  which  exists  hetween  the  mother 
and  the  daughter  lands.  No  reason  presents  itself  to 
him  why  our  artisans  and  merchants  should  be  taxed 
in  aid  of  populations  far  more  wealthy  than  our  own, 
who  have  not,  as  we  have,  millions  of  paupers  to  sup- 
port. We  at  present  tax  our  humblest  classes,  we 
weaken  our  defenses,  we  scatter  our  troops  and  fleets, 
and  lay  ourselves  open  to  panics  such  as  those  of  1853 
and  1859,  in  order  to  protect  against  imaginary  dan- 
gers the  Australian  gold-digger  and  Canadian  farmer. 
There  is  something  ludicrous  in  the  idea  of  taxing  St. 
Giles's  for  the  support  of  Melbourne,  and  making  Dor- 
setshire agricultural  laborers  pay  the  cost  of  defending 
New  Zealand  colonists  in  Maori  wars. 

It  is  possible  that  the  belief  obtains  in  Britain  among 
the  least  educated  classes  of  the  community  that  colo- 
nial expenses  are  rapidly  decreasing,  if  they  have  not 
already  wholly  disappeared;  but  in  fact  they  have  for 
some  years  past  been  steadily  and  continuously  grow- 
ing in  amount. 

As  long  as  we  choose  to  keep  up  such  propugnacula 
as  Gibraltar,  Malta,  and  Bermuda,  we  must  pay  roundly 
for  them,  as  we  also  must  for  such  costly  luxuries  as 
our  Gold  Coast  settlements  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade ;  but  if  we  confine  the  term  "  colonies'"  to 


COLONIES.  131 

English-speaking,  white-inhabited,  and  self-governed 
lands,  and  exclude  on  the  one  hand  garrisons  such  as 
Gibraltar,  and  on  the  other  mere  dependencies  like 
the  West  Indies  and  Ceylon,  we  find  that  our  true 
colonies  in  North  America,  Australia,  Polynesia,  and 
South  Africa,  involve  us  nominally  in  yearly  charges 
of  almost  two  millions  sterling,  and,  really,  in  untold 
expenditure. 

Canada  is  in  all  ways  the  most  flagrant  case.  She 
draws  from  us  some  three  millions  annually  for  her 
defense,  she  makes  no  contribution  toward  the  cost; 
she  relies  mainly  on  us  to  defend  a  frontier  of  4000 
miles,  and  she  excludes  our  goods  by  prohibitive  duties 
at  her  ports.  In  short,  colonial  expenses  which,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  our  fathers  bore  (and  that  not  ungrudg- 
ingly) when  they  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  colonial  trade, 
are  borne  by  us  in  face  of  colonial  prohibition.  What 
the  true  cost  to  us  of  Canada  may  be  is  unfortunately 
an  open  question,  and  the  loss  by  the  weakening  of 
our  home  forces  we  have  no  means  of  computing ;  but 
when  we  consider  that,  on  a  fair  statement  of  the  case, 
Canada  would  be  debited  with  the  cost  of  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  half-pay  and  recruiting  services,  of  Horse 
Guards  and  War  Office  expenses,  of  arms,  accouter- 
ments,  barracks,  hospitals,  and  stores,  and  also  with 
the  gigantic  expenses  of  two  of  our  naval  squadrons, 
we  cannot  but  admit  that  we  must  pay  at  least  three 
millions  a  year  for  the  hatred  that  the  Canadians  pro- 
fess to  bear  toward  the  United  States.  Whatever  may 
be  the  case,  however,  with  regard  to  Canada,  less  fault 
is  to  be  found  with  the  cost  of  the  Australian  colonies. 
If  they  bore  a  portion  of  the  half-pay  and  recruiting 
expenses  as  well  as  the  cost  of  the  troops  actually 
employed  among  them  in  time  of  peace,  and  also  paid 
their  share  in  the  maintenance  of  the  British  navy — 


132  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

a  share  to  increase  with  the  increase  of  their  merchant 
shipping — there  would  be  little  to  desire,  unless,  in- 
deed, we  should  wish  that,  in  exchange  for  a  check 
upon  imperial  braggadocio  and  imperial  waste,  the 
Australian  should  also  contribute  toward  the  expenses 
of  imperial  wars. 

No  reason  can  be  shown  for  our  spending  millions 
on  the  defense  of  Canada  against  the  Americans  or  in 
aiding  the  New  Zealand  colonists  against  the  Maories 
that  will  not  apply  to  their  aiding  us  in  case  of  a 
European  war  with  France,  control  being  given  to 
their  representatives  over  our  public  action  in  ques- 
tions of  imperial  concern.  Without  any  such  control 
over  imperial  action,  the  old  American  colonists  were 
well  content  to  do  their  share  of  fighting  in  imperial 
wars.  In  1689,  in  1702,  and  in  1744,  Massachusetts 
attacked  the  French,  and,  taking  from  them  Nova 
Scotia  and  others  of  their  new  plantations,  handed 
them  over  to  Great  Britain.  Even  when  the  tax-time 
came,  Massachusetts,  while  declaring  that  the  English 
Parliament  had  no  right  to  tax  colonies,  went  on  to 
say  that  the  king  could  inform  them  of  the  exigencies 
of  the  public  service,  and  that  they  were  ready  "  to 
provide  for  them  if  required." 

It  is  not  likely,  however,  nowadays,  that  our  colo- 
nists would,  for  any  long  stretch  of  time,  engage  to 
aid  us  in  our  purely  European  wars.  Australia  would 
scarcely  feel  herself  deeply  interested  in  the  guarantee 
of  Luxembourg,  nor  Canada  in  the  affairs  of  Servia. 
The  fact  that  we  in  Britain  paid  our  share — or  rather 
nearly  the  whole  cost — of  the  Maori  wars  would  be  no 
argument  to  an  Australian,  but  only  an  additional 
proof  to  him  of  our  extraordinary  folly.  We  have 
been  educated  into  a  habit  of  paying  with  complacency 
other  people's  bills — not  so  the  Australian  settler. 


COLONIES.  133 

As  far  as  Australia  is  concerned,  our  soldiers  are 
not  used  as  troops  at  all.  The  colonists  like  the  show 
of  the  red-coats,  and  the  military  duties  are  made  up 
partly  of  guard- of-honor  work,  and  partly  of  the  labors 
of  police.  The  colonists  well  know  that  in  time  of 
war  we  should  immediately  withdraw  our  troops,  and 
they  trust  wholly  in  their  volunteers  and  the  colonial 
marine. 

As  long  as  we  choose  to  allow  the  system  to  con- 
tinue, the  colonists  are  well  content  to  reap  the  benefit. 
When  we  at  last  decide  that  it  shall  cease,  they  will 
reluctantly  consent.  It  is  more  than  doubtful  whether, 
if  we  were  to  insist  to  the  utmost  upon  our  rights  as 
toward  our  southern  colonies,  they  would  do  more 
than  grumble  and  consent  to  our  demands;  and  there 
is  no  chance  whatever  of  our  asking  for  more  than  our 
simple  due. 

When  you  talk  to  an  intelligent  Australian,  you  can 
always  see  that  he  fears  that  separation  would  be  made 
the  excuse  for  the  equipment  of  a  great  and  costly 
Australian  fleet — not  more  necessary  then  than  now — 
and  that,  however  he  may  talk,  he  would,  rather  than 
separate  from  England,  at  least  do  his  duty  by  her. 

The  fear  of  conquest  of  the  Australian  colonies  if  we 
left  them  to  themselves  is  on  the  face  of  it  ridiculous. 
It  is  sufficient,  perhaps,  to  say  that  the  old  American 
colonies,  when  they  had  but  a  million  and  a  half  of 
people,  defended  themselves  successfully  against  the 
then  all-powerful  French,  and  that  there  is  no  instance 
of  a  self-protected  English  colony  being  conquered  by 
the  foreigner.  The  American  colonies  valued  so  highly 
their  independence  of  the  old  country  in  the  matter  of 
defense  that  they  petitioned  the  Crown  to  be  allowed 
to  fight  for  themselves,  and  called  the  British  army  by 
the  plain  name  of  "grievance." 

VOL.  II.  12 


134  GEE  ATE  R   BRITAIN. 

As  for  our  so-called  defense  of  the  colonies,  in  war- 
time we  defend  ourselves ;  we  defend  the  colonies  only 
during  peace.  In  war-time  they  are  ever  left  to  shift 
for  themselves,  and  they  would  undoubtedly  be  better 
fit  to  do  so  were  they  in  the  habit  of  maintaining  their 
military  establishments  in  time  of  peace.  The  present 
system  weakens  us  and  them — us,  by  taxes  and  by  the 
withdrawal  of  our  men  and  ships ;  the  colonies,  by  pre- 
venting the  development  of  that  self-reliance  which  is 
requisite  to  form  a  nation's  greatness.  The  successful 
encountering  of  difficulties  is  the  marking  feature  of 
the  national  character  of  the  English,  and  we  can  hardly 
expect  a  nation  which  has  never  encountered  any,  or 
which  has  been  content  to  see  them  met  by  others, 
ever  to  become  great.  In  short,  as  matters  now  stand, 
the  colonies  are  a  source  of  military  weakness  to  us, 
and  our  "  protection"  of  them  is  a  source  of  danger  to 
the  colonists.  No  doubt  there  are  still  among  us  men 
who  would  have  wished  to  have  seen  America  continue 
in  union  with  England,  on  the  principle  on  which  the 
Russian  conscripts  are  chained  each  to  an  old  man — to 
keep  her  from  going  too  fast — and  who  now  consider  it 
our  duty  to  defend  our  colonies  at  whatever  cost,  on 
account  of  the  "prestige"  which  attaches  to  the  some- 
what precarious  tenure  of  these  great  lands.  With 
such  men  it  is  impossible  for  colonial  reformers  to 
argue  :  the  stand-points  are  wholly  different.  To  those, 
however,  who  admit  the  injustice  of  the  present  system 
to  the  tax-payers  of  the  mother-country,  but  who  fear 
that  her  merchants  would  suffer  by  its  disturbance, 
inasmuch  as,  in  their  belief,  action  on  our  part  would 
lead  to  a  disruption  of  the  tie,  we  may  plead  that,  even 
should  separation  be  the  result,  we  should  be  none  the 
worse  off  for  its  occurrence.  The  retention  of  colonies 
at  almost  any  cost  has  been  defended — so  far  as  it  has 


COLONIES.  135 

been  supported  by  argument  at  all — on  the  ground 
that  the  connection  conduces  to  trade,  to  which  argu- 
ment it  is  sufficient  to  answer  that  no  one  has  ever 
succeeded  in  showing  what  effect  upon  trade  the  con- 
nection can  have,  and  that  as  excellent  examples  to 
the  contrary  we  have  the  fact  that  our  trade  with  the 
Ionian  Islands  has  greatly  increased  since  their  annex- 
ation to  the  kingdom  of  Greece,  arid  a  much  more 
striking  fact  than  even  this — namely,  that  while  the 
trade  with  England  of  the  Canadian  Confederation  is 
only  four-elevenths  of  its  total  external  trade,  or  little 
more  than  one-third,  the  English  trade  of  the  United 
States  was  in  1860  (before  the  war)  nearly  two-thirds 
of  its  total  external  trade,  in  1861  more  than  two-thirds, 
and  in  1866  (first  year  after  the  war)  again  four-sevenths 
of  its  total  trade.  Common  institutions,  common  free- 
dom, and  common  tongue  have  evidently  far  more  to 
do  with  trade  than  union  has;  and  for  purposes  of 
commerce  and  civilization,  America  is  a  truer  colony 
of  Britain  than  is  Canada. 

It  would  not  be  difficult,  were  it  necessary,  to  mul- 
tiply examples  whereby  to  prove  that  trade  with  a 
country  does  not  appear  to  be  affected  by  union  with 
or  separation  from  it.  Egypt  (even  when  we  carefully 
exclude  from  the  returns  Indian  produce  in  transport) 
sends  us  nearly  all  such  produce  as  she  exports,  not- 
withstanding that  the  French  largely  control  the  gov- 
ernment, and  that  we  have  much  less  footing  in  the 
country  than  the  Italians,  and  no  more  than  the  Aus- 
trians  or  Spanish.  Our  trade  with  Australia  means 
that  the  Australians  want  something  of  us  and  that  we 
need  something  of  them,  and  that  we  exchange  with 
them  our  produce  as  we  do  in  a  larger  degree  with  the 
Americans,  the  Germans,  and  the  French. 

The  trade  argument  being  met,  and  it  being  remem- 


136  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

bered  that  our  colonies  are  no  more  an  outlet  for  our 
surplus  population  than  they  would  be  if  the  Great 
Mogul  ruled  over  them,  as  is  seen  by  the  fact  that  of 
every  twenty  people  who  leave  the  United  Kingdom, 
one  goes  to  Canada,  two  to  Australia,  and  sixteen  to 
the  United  States,  we  come  to  the  "  argument"  which 
consists  in  the  word  "prestige,"  When  examined, 
this  cry  seems  to  mean  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  ut- 
terer,  extent  of  empire  is  power — a  doctrine  under  which 
Brazil  ought  to  be  nineteen  and  a  half  times,  and 
China  twenty-six  times  as  powerful  as  France.  Per- 
haps the  best  answer  to  the  doctrine  is  a  simple  con- 
tradiction: those  who  have  read  history  with  most  care 
well  know  that  at  all  times  extent  of  empire  has  been 
weakness.  England's  real  empire  was  small  enough 
in  1650,  yet  it  is  rather  doubtful  whether  her  "pres- 
tige" ever  reached  the  height  it  did  while  the  Crom- 
wellian  admirals  swept  the  seas.  The  idea  conveyed 
by  the  words  "mother  of  free  nations"  is  every  bit  as 
good  as  that  contained  in  the  cry  "prestige,"  and  the 
argument  that,  as  the  colonists  are  British  subjects,  we 
have  no  right  to  cast  them  adrift  so  long  as  they  wish 
to  continue  citizens,  is  evidently  no  answer  to  those 
who  merely  urge  that  the  colonists  should  pay  their 
own  policemen. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  contended  that  the  possession 
of  "colonies"  tends  to  preserve  us  from  the  curse  of 
small  island  countries,  the  dwarfing  of  mind  which 
would  otherwise  make  us  Guernsey  a  little  magnified. 
If  this  be  true,  it  is  a  powerful  argument  in  favor  of 
continuance  in  the  present  system.  It  is  a  question, 
however,  whether  our  real  preservation  from  the  insu- 
larity we  deprecate  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  possession 
of  true  colonies — of  plantations  such  as  America,  in 
short — rather  than  in  that  of  mere  dependencies.  That 


COLONIES.  137 

which  raises  us  above  the  provincialism  of  citizenship 
of  little  England  is  our  citizenship  of  the  greater  Saxon- 
dom  which  includes  all  that  is  best  and  wisest  in  the 
world. 

From  the  foundation,  separation  would  be  harmless, 
does  not  of  necessity  follow  the  conclusion,  separation 
is  to  be  desired.  This  much  only  is  clear — that  we 
need  not  hesitate  to  demand  that  Australia  should  do 
her  duty. 

With  the  more  enlightened  thinkers  of  England, 
separation  from  the  colonies  has  for  many  years  been 
a  favorite  idea,  but  as  regards  the  Australias  it  would 
hardly  be  advisable.  If  we  allow  that  it  is  to  the  in- 
terest both  of  our  race  and  of  the  world  that  the  Aus- 
tralias should  prosper,  we  have  to  ask  whether  they 
would  do  so  in  a  higher  degree  if  separated  from  the 
mother-country  than  if  they  remained  connected  with 
her  and  with  each  other  by  a  federation.  It  has  often 
been  said  that,  instead  of  the  varying  relations  which 
now  exist  between  Britain  and  America,  we  should 
have  seen  a  perfect  friendship  had  we  but  permitted 
the  American  colonies  to  go  their  way  in  peace ;  but 
the  examples  does  not  hold  in  the  case  of  Australia, 
which  is  by  no  means  wishful  to  go  at  all. 

Under  separation  we  should,  perhaps,  find  the  colo- 
nies better  emigration-fields  for  our  surplus  population 
than  they  are  at  present.  Many  of  our  emigrants  who 
flock  to  the  United  States  are  attracted  by  the  idea 
that  they  are  going  to  become  citizens  of  a  new  nation 
instead  of  dependents  upon  an  old  one.  On  the  separa- 
tion of  Australia  from  England  we  might  expect  that 
a  portion  of  these  sentimentalists  would  be  diverted 
from  a  colony  necessarily  jealous  of  us  so  long  as  we 
hold  Canada,  to  one  which  from  accordance  of  interests 
is  likely  to  continue  friendly  or  allied.  This  argument, 

12* 


138  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

however,  would  have  no  weight  with  those  who  desire 
the  independence  of  Canada,  and  who  look  upon 
America  as  still  our  colony. 

Separation,  we  may  then  conclude,  though  infinitely 
better  than  a  continuance  of  the  existing  one-sided  tie, 
would,  in  a  healthier  state  of  our  relations,  not  be  to 
the  interest  of  Britain,  although  it  would  perhaps  be 
morally  beneficial  to  Australia.  Any  relation,  how- 
ever, would  be  preferable  to  the  existing  one  of  mutual 
indifference  and  distrust.  Recognizing  the  fact  that 
Australia  has  come  of  age,  and  calling  on  her,  too,  to 
recognize  it,  we  should  say  to  the  Australian  colonists : 
"  Our  present  system  cannot  continue ;  will  you  amend 
it,  or  separate  ?"  The  worst  thing  that  can  happen  to 
us  is  that  we  should  "  drift"  blindly  into  separation. 

After  all,  the  strongest  of  the  arguments  in  favor 
of  separation  is  the  somewhat  paradoxical  one  that  it 
would  bring  us  a  step  nearer  to  the  virtual  confedera- 
tion of  the  English  race. 


INDIA. 


(139) 


A  REGULAR  and  uniform  system  of  spelling  of  native 
names  and  other  words  has  lately  been  brought  into 
common  use  in  India,  and  adopted  by  the  govern- 
ment. Not  without  hesitation,  I  have  decided  upon 
ignoring  this  improvement,  and  confining  myself  to 
spellings  known  to  and  used  by  the  English  in  Eng- 
land, for  whom  especially  I  am  writing. 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  no  system  in  the  spelling, 
and  that  it  is  scientifically  absurd;  nevertheless,  the 
new  government  spelling  is  not  yet  sufficiently  well 
understood  in  England  to  warrant  its  use  in  a  book 
intended  for  general  circulation.  The  scientific  spell- 
ing is  not  always  an  improvement  to  the  eye,  more- 
over: Talookdars  of  Oude  may  not  be  right,  but  it  is 
a  neater  phrase  than  "Ta&lukhdars  of  Awdh;"  and 
it  will  probably  be  long  before  we  in  England  write 
"kuli"  for  coolie,  or  adopt  the  spelling  "  TaU  hordes." 


(140) 


CHAPTER  I. 

MARITIME     CEYLON. 

WE  failed  to  sight  the  Island  of  Cocoas,  a  territory 
where  John  Eoss  is  king — a  worthy  Scotchman,  who 
having  settled  down  in  mid-ocean,  some  hundreds  of 
miles  from  any  port,  proceeded  to  annex  himself  to 
Java  and  the  Dutch.  On  being  remonstrated  with, 
he  was  made  to  see  his  error ;  and,  being  appointed 
governor  of  and  consul  to  himself  and  laborers,  now 
hoists  the  union-jack,  while  his  island  has  a  red  line 
drawn  under  its  name  upon  the  map.  Two  days  after 
quitting  John  Ross's  latitudes,  we  crossed  the  line  in 
the  heavy  noonday  of  the  equatorial  belt  of  calms. 
The  sun  itself  passed  the  equator  the  same  day;  so, 
after  having  left  Australia  at  the  end  of  autumn,  I 
suddenly  found  myself  in  Asia  in  the  early  spring. 
Mist  obscured  the  skies  except  at  dawn  and  sunset, 
when  there  was  a  clear  air,  in  which  floated  cirro- 
cumuli  with  flat  bases  —  clouds  cut  in  half,  as  it 
seemed  —  and  we  were  all  convinced  that  Homer 
must  have  seen  the  Indian  Ocean,  so  completely 
did  the  sea  in  the  equatorial  belt  realize  his  epithet 
"purple"  or  " wine-dark."  All  day  long  the  flying- 
ftsh — "  those  good  and  excellent  creatures  of  God," 
as  Drake  styled  them — were  skimming  over  the  water 
on  every  side.  The  Elizabethan  captain,  who  knew 
their  delicacy  of  taste,  attributed  their  freedom  from 
the  usual  slime  of  fish,  and  their  wholesome  nature, 
to  "their  continued  exercise  in  both  air  and  water." 
The  heat  was  great,  and  I  made  the  discovery  that 

(141) 


142  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Australians  as  well  as  Americans  can  put  their  feet 
above  their  heads.  It  may  be  asserted  that  the  height 
above  the  deck  of  the  feet  of  passengers  on  board 
ocean  steamers  varies  directly  as  the  heat,  and  in- 
versely as  the  number  of  hours  before  dinner. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  day  we  crossed  the  line, 
we  sighted  a  large  East  Indiaman  lying  right  in  our 
course,  and  so  little  way  was  she  making  that,  on 
coming  up  with  her,  we  had  to  port  our  helm,  in 
order  not  to  run  her  down.  She  hailed  us,  and  we 
lay-to  while  she  sent  a  boat  aboard  us  with  her  mail ; 
for  although  she  was  already  a  month  out  from  Cal- 
cutta and  bound  for  London,  our  letters  would  reach 
home  before  she  was  round  the  Cape — a  singular  com- 
mentary upon  the  use  of  sailing  ships  in  the  Indian 
seas.  Before  the  boat  had  left  our  side,  the  ships  had 
floated  so  close  together,  through  attraction,  that  we 
had  to  make  several  revolutions  with  the  screw  in 
order  to  prevent  collision. 

When  we,  who  were  all  sleeping  upon  deck,  were 
aroused  by  the  customary  growl  from  the  European 
quartermaster  of  "Four  o'clock,  sir!  Going  to  swab 
decks,  sir!  Get  up,  sir!"  given  with  the  flare  of  the 
lantern  in  our  eyes,  we  were  still  over  a  hundred  miles 
from  Galle;  but  before  the  sun  had  risen,  we  caught 
sight  of  Adam's  Peak,  a  purple  mass  upon  the  northern 
sky,  and  soon  we  were  racing  with  a  French  steamer 
from  Saigon,  and  with  a  number  of  white-sailed  native 
craft  from  the  Maldives.  Within  a  few  hours,  we  were 
at  anchor  in  a  small  bay,  surrounded  with  lofty  cocoa- 
palms,  in  which  were  lying,  tossed  by  a  rolling  s\v,ell, 
some  dozen  huge  steamers,  yard-arm  to  yard-arm — the 
harbor  of  Point  de  Galle.  Every  ship  was  flying  her 
ensign,  and  in  the  damp  hot  air  the  old  tattered  union- 
jacks  seemed  brilliant  crimson,  and  the  dull  green  of 


MARITIME    CEYLON.  143 

the  cocoa-palms  became  a  dazzling  emerald.  The  scene 
wanted  but  the  bright  plumage  of  the  Panama  macaws. 

Once  seated  in  the  piazza  of  the  Oriental  Company's 
hotel,  the  best  managed  in  the  East,  I  had  before  me  a 
curious  scene.  Along  the  streets  were  pouring  silent 
crowds  of  tall  and  graceful  girls,  as  we  at  the  first 
glance  supposed,  wearing  white  petticoats  and  bodices ; 
their  hair  carried  off  the  face  with  a  decorated  hoop, 
and  caught  at  the  back  by  a  high  tortoise-shell  comb. 
As  they  drew  near,  mustaches  began  to  show,  and  I 
saw  that  they  were  men,  while  walking  with  them 
were  women  naked  to  the  waist,  combless,  and  far  more 
rough  and  "  manly"  than  their  husbands.  Petticoat 
and  chignon  are  male  institutions  in  Ceylon,  and  time 
after  time  I  had  to  look  twice  before  I  could  fix  the 
passer's  sex.  My  rule  at  last  became  to  set  down  every- 
body that  was  womanly  as  a  man,  and  everybody  that 
was  manly  as  a  woman.  Cinghalese,  Kandians,  Tamils 
from  South  India,  and  Moormen  with  crimson  caftans 
and  shaven  crowns,  formed  the  body  of  the  great  crowd ; 
but,  besides  these,  there  were  Portuguese,  Chinese, 
Jews,  Arabs,  Parsees,  Englishmen,  Malays,  Dutchmen, 
and  half-caste  burghers,  and  now  and  then  a  veiled 
Arabian  woman  or  a  Veddah — one  of  the  aboriginal  in- 
habitants of  the  isle.  Ceylon  has  never  been  independ- 
ent, and  in  a  singular  mixture  of  races  her  ports  bear 
testimony  to  the  number  of  the  foreign  conquests. 

Two  American  missionaries  were  among  the  passers- 
by,  but  one  of  them,  detecting  strangers,  came  up  to 
the  piazza  in  search  of  news.  There  had  been  no  loss 
of  national  characteristics  in  these  men; — they  were 
brimful  of  the  mixture  of  earnestness  and  quaint  pro- 
fanity which  distinguishes  the  New  England  puritan : 
one  of  them  described  himself  to  me  as  "just  a  kind 
of  journeyman  soul-saver,  like." 


144  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

The  Australian  strangers  were  not  long  left  unmo- 
lested by  more  serious  intruders  than  grave  Vermont- 
ers.  The  cry  of  "baksheesh" — an  Arabian  word  that 
goes  from  Gibraltar  to  China,  and  from  Ceylon  to  the 
Khyber  Pass,  and  which  has  reached  us  in  the  form  of 
"  boxes"  in  our  phrase  Christmas-boxes — was  the  first 
native  word  I  heard  in  the  East,  at  Galle,  as  it  was 
afterward  the  last,  at  Alexandria.  One  of  the  beggars 
was  an  Albino,  fair  as  a  child  in  a  Hampshire  lane ; 
one  of  those  strange  sports  of  nature  from  whom  Cin- 
ghalese  tradition  asserts  the  European  races  to  be 
sprung. 

The  beggars  were  soon  driven  off  by  the  hotel  ser- 
vants, and  better  licensed  plunderers  began  their  work. 
"  Ah  safeer,  ah  rupal,  ah  imral,  ah  mooney  stone,  ah 
opal,  ah  am  tit,  ah!"  was  the  cry  from  every  quarter, 
and  jewel-sellers  of  all  the  nations  of  the  East  de- 
scended on  us  in  a  swarm.  "Me  givee  you  written 
guarantee  di s  real  stone;"  "Yes,  dat  real  stone;  but 
dis  good  stone — dat  no  good  stone — no  water.  Ah, 
see!"  "Dat  no  good  stone.  Ah,  sahib,  you  tell  good 
stone :  all  dese  bad  stone,  reg'lar  England  stone.  You 
go  by  next  ship  ?  No  ?  Ah,  den  you  come  see  me  shop. 
Dese  ship-passenger  stone — humbuk  stone.  Ship  gone, 
den  you  come  me  shop ;  see  good  stone.  When  you 
come?  eh?  when  you  come?"  "Ah,  safeer,  ah  catty- 
eye,  ah  pinkee  collal!"  Meanwhile  every  Galle-dwell- 
ing  European,  at  the  bar  of  the  hotel,  was  adding  to 
the  din  by  shouting  to  the  native  servants,  "Boy,  turn 
out  these  fellows,  and  stop  their  noise."  This  cry  of 
"boy"  is  a  relic  of  the  old  Dutch  times :  it  was  the 
Hollander's  term  for  his  slave,  and  hence  for  every 
member  of  the  inferior  race.  The  first  servant  that  I 
heard  called  "boy"  was  a  tottering,  white-haired  old 
man. 


MARITIME    CEYLON.  145 

The  gems  of  Ceylon  have  long  been  famed.  One 
thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy  years  ago,  the 
Chinese  records  tell  us  that  Ceylon,  then  tributary  to 
the  empire,  sent  presents  to  the  Brother  of  the  Moon, 
one  of  the  gifts  being  a  "  lapis-lazuli  spittoon."  It  is 
probable  that  some  portion  of  the  million  and  a  half 
pounds  sterling  which  are  annually  absorbed  in  this 
small  island,  but  four-fifths  the  size  of  Ireland,  is  con- 
sumed in  the  setting  of  the  precious  stones  for  native 
use ;  every  one  you  meet  wears  four  or  five  heavy  sil- 
ver rings,  and  sovereigns  are  melted  down  to  make 
gold  ornaments. 

Rushing  away  from  the  screaming  crowd  of  peddlers, 
I  went  with  some  of  my  Australian  friends  to  stroll 
upon  the  ramparts  and  enjoy  the  evening  salt  breeze. 
We  met  several  boflies  of  white-faced  Europeans,  saun- 
tering like  ourselves,  and  dressed  like  us  in  white 
trowsers  and  loose  white  jackets  and  pith  hats.  What 
we  looked  like  I  do  not  know,  but  they  resembled 
ships'  stewards.  At  last  it  struck  me  that  they  were 
soldiers,  and  upon  inquiring  I  found  that  these  washed- 
out  dawdlers  represented  a  British  regiment  of  the  line. 
I  was  by  this  time  used  to  see  linesmen  out  of  scarlet, 
having  beheld  a  parade  in  bushranger-beards  and 
blue-serge  " jumpers"  at  Taranaki  in  New  Zealand; 
but  one  puts  up  easier  with  the  soldier-bushranger 
than  with  the  soldier-steward. 

The  climate  of  the  day  had  been  exquisite  with  its 
bright  air  and  cooling  breeze,  and  I  had  begun  to  think 
that  those  who  knew  Acapulco  and  Echuca  could  afford 
to  laugh  at  the  East,  with  its  thermometer  at  88°.  The 
reckoning  came  at  night,  however,  for  by  dark  all  the 
breeze  was  gone,  and  the  thermometer,  instead  of  fall- 
ing, had  risen  to  90°  when  I  lay  down  to  moan  and 
wait  for  dawn.  As  I  was  dropping  off  to  sleep  at  about 

VOL.  II.  13 


146  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

four  o'clock,  a  native  came  round  and  closed  the  doors, 
to  shut  out  the  dangerous  land-breeze  that  springs  up 
at  that  hour.  Again,  at  half-past  five,  it  was  cooler, 
and  I  had  begun  to  doze,  when  a  cannon-shot,  fired  ap- 
parently under  my  bed,  brought  me  upon  my  feet  with 
something  more  than  a  start.  I  remembered  the  say- 
ing of  the  Western  boy  before  Petersburg,  when  he 
heard  for  the  first  time  the  five  o'clock  camp-gun,  and 
called  to  his  next  neighbor  at  the  fire,  "  Say,  Bill,  did 
you  hap  to  hear  how  partic'lar  loud  the  day  broke  just 
now?"  for  it  was  the  morning-gun,  which  in  Ceylon  is 
always  fired  at  the  same  time,  there  being  less  than  an 
hour's  difference  between  the  longest  and  shortest  days. 
Although  it  was  still  pitch  dark,  the  bugles  began  to 
sound  the  reveille  on  every  side — in  the  infantry  lines, 
the  artillery  barracks,  and  the  lines -of  the  Malay  regi- 
ment, the  well-known  Ceylon  Rifles.  Ten  minutes 
afterward,  when  I  had  bathed  by  lamplight,  I  was 
eating  plantains  and  taking  my  morning  tea  in  a  cool 
room  lit  by  the  beams  of  the  morning  sun,  so  short  is 
the  April  twilight  in  Ceylon. 

It  is  useless  to  consult  the  thermometer  about  heat : 
a  European  can  labor  in  the  open  air  in  South  Aus- 
tralia with  the  thermometer  at  110°  in  the  shade,  while, 
with  a  thermometer  at  88°,  the  nights  are  unbearable 
in  Ceylon.  To  discover  whether  the  climate  of  a  place 
be  really  hot,  examine  its  newspapers;  and  if  you  find 
the  heat  recorded,  you  may  make  up  your  mind  that  it 
is  a  variable  climate,  but  if  no  "remarkable  heat"  or 
similar  announcements  appear,  then  you  may  be  sure 
that  you  are  in  a  permanently  hot  place.  It  stands  to 
reason  that  no  one  in  the  tropics  ever  talks  of  "  tropical 
heat." 

In  so  equable  a  climate,  the  apathy  of  the  Cinghalese 
is  not  surprising;  but  they  are  not  merely  lazy,  they 


MARITIME    CEYLON.  147 

are  a  cowardly,  effeminate,  and  revengeful  race.  They 
sleep  and  smoke,  and  smoke  and  sleep,  rousing  them- 
selves only  once  in  the  day  to  snatch  a  bowl  of  curry 
and  rice,  or  to  fleece  a  white  man ;  and  so  slowly  do  the 
people  run  the  race  of  life  that  even  elephantiasis,  com- 
mon here,  does  not  seem  to  put  the  sufferer  far  behind 
his  fellow-men.  Buddhism  is  no  mystery  when  ex- 
pounded under  this  climate.  See  a  few  Cinghalese 
stretched  in  the  shade  of  a  cocoa-palm,  and  you  can 
conceive  Buddha  sitting  cross-legged  for  ten  thousand 
years  contemplating  his  own  perfection. 
.  The  second  morning  that  I  spent  in  Galle,  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Bombay  was  kind  enough  to  send  his  gig 
for  me  to  the  landing-steps  at  dawn,  and  his  Malay 
crew  soon  rowed  me  to  the  ship,  where  the  captain 
joined  me,  and  we  pulled  across  the  harbor  to  Water- 
ing-place Point,  and  bathed  in  the  shallow  sea,  out  of 
the  reach  of  sharks.  When  we  had  dressed,  we  went 
on  to  a  jetty,  to  look  into  the  deep  water  just  struck  by 
the  rising  sun.  I  should  have  marveled  at  the  trans- 
lucency  of  the  waters  had  not  the  awful  clearness  with 
which  the  bottoms  of  the  Canadian  lakes  stand  revealed 
in  evening  light  been  fresh  within  my  memory,  but  here 
the  bottom  was  fairly  paved  with  corallines  of  inconceiv- 
able brilliancy  of  color,  and  tenanted  by  still  more  gor- 
geous fish.  Of  the  two  that  bore  the  palm,  one  was  a 
little  fish  of  mazarine  blue,  without  a  speck  of  any  other 
color,  and  perfect  too  in  shape;  the  second,  a  silver 
fish,  with  a  band  of  soft  brown  velvet  round  its  neck, 
and  another  about  its  tail.  In  a  still  more  sheltered 
cove  the  fish  were  so  thick  that  dozens  of  Moors  were 
throwing  into  the  water,  with  the  arm-twist  of  a  fly- 
fisher,  bare  hooks,  which  they  jerked  through  the  shoal 
and  into  the  air,  never  failing  to  bring  them  up  clothed 
with  a  fish,  caught  most  times  by  the  fin. 


148  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

In  the  evening,  two  of  us  tried  a  native  dinner,  at  a 
house  where  Cinghalese  gentlemen  dine  when  they 
come  into  Galle  on  business.  Our  fare  was  as  follows: 
First  course :  a  curry  of  the  delicious  seir-fish,  a  sort 
of  mackerel ;  a  prawn  curry ;  a  bread-fruit  and  cocoa- 
nut  curry;  a  Brinjal  curry,  and  a  dish  made  of  jack- 
fruit,  garlic,  and  mace;  all  washed  down  by  iced  water. 
Second  course:  plantains,  and  very  old  arrack  in  thim- 
ble-glasses, followed  by  black  coffee.  Of  meat  there 
was  no  sign,  as  the  Cinghalese  rarely  touch  it;  and, 
although  we  liked  our  vegetarian  dinner,  my  friend 
passed  a  criticism  in  action  on  it  by  dining  again  at 
the  hotel- ordinary  one  hour  later.  We  agreed,  too, 
that  the  sickly  smell  of  cocoanut  would  cleave  to  us 
for  weeks. 

Starting  with  an  Australian  friend,  at  the  dawn  of 
my  third  day  in  the  island,  I  took  the  coach  by  the 
coast  road  to  Columbo.  We  drove  along  a  magnificent 
road  in  an  avenue  of  giant  cocoanut-palms,  with  the  sea 
generally  within  easy  sight,  and  with  a  native  hut  at 
each  few  yards.  Every  two  or  three  miles,  the  road 
crossed  a  lagoon,  alive  with  bathers,  and  near  the 
bridge  was  generally  a  village,  bazaar,  and  Buddhist 
temple,  built  pagoda-shape,  and  filled  with  worshipers. 
The  road  was  thronged  with  gayly-dressed  Cinghalese; 
and  now  and  again  we  would  pass  a  Buddhist  priest 
in  saffron-colored  robes,  hastening  along,  his  umbrella 
borne  over  him  by  a  boy  clothed  from  top  to  toe  in 
white.  The  umbrellas  of  the  priests  are  of  yellow 
silk,  and  shaped  like  ours,  but  other  natives  carry 
flat-topped  umbrellas,  gilt,  or  colored  red  and  black. 
The  Cinghalese  farmers  we  met  traveling  to  their 
temples  in  carts  drawn  by  tiny  bullocks.  Such  was 
the  brightness  of  the  air,  that  the  people,  down  to  the 
very  beggars,  seemed  clad  in  holiday  attire. 


MARITIME    CEYLON.  149 

As  we  journeyed  on,  we  began  to  find  more  variety 
in  the  scenery  and  vegetation,  and  were  charmed  with 
the  scarlet-blossomed  cotton-tree,  and  with  the  areca, 
or  betel-nut  palm.  The  cocoanut  groves,  too,  were 
carpeted  with  an  undergrowth  of  orchids  and  ipeca- 
cuanha, and  here  and  there  was  a  bread-fruit  tree  or 
an  hibiscus. 

In  Ceylon  we  have  retained  the  Dutch  posting  sys- 
tem, and  small  light  coaches,  drawn  by  four  or  six 
small  horses  at  a  gallop,  run  over  excellent  roads, 
carrying,  besides  the  passengers,  two  boys  behind, 
who  shout  furiously  whenever  vehicles  or  passengers 
obstruct  the  mails,  and  who  at  night  carry  torches  high 
in  the  air,  to  light  the  road.  Thus  we  dashed  through 
the  bazaars  and  cocoa  groves,  then  across  the  golden 
sands  covered  with  rare  shells,  and  fringed  on  the  one 
side  with  the  bright  blue  dancing  sea,  dotted  with 
many  a  white  sail,  and  on  the  other  side  with  deep 
green  jungle,  in  which  were  sheltered  dark  lagoons. 
Once  in  a  while,  we  would  drive  out  on  to  a  plain, 
varied  by  clumps  of  fig  and  tulip  trees,  and,  looking 
to  the  east,  would  sight  the  purple  mountains  of  the 
central  range;  then,  dashing  again  into  the  thronged 
bazaars,  would  see  little  but  the  bright  palm-trees  re- 
lieved upon  an  azure  sky.  The  road  is  one  continuous 
village,  for  the  population  is  twelve  times  as  dense  in 
the  western  as  in  the  eastern  provinces  of  Ceylon.  No 
wonder  that  ten  thousand  natives  have  died  of  cholera 
within  the  last  few  months !  All  this  dense  coast  popula- 
tion is  supported  by  the  cocoanut,  for  there  are  in  Cey- 
lon 200,000  acres  under  cocoa-palms,  which  yield  from 
seven  to  eight  hundred  million  cocoanuts  a  year,  and 
are  worth  two  millions  sterling. 

Near  Bentotte,  where  we  had  lunched  off  horrible 
oysters  of  the  pearl-yielding  kind,  we  crossed  the  Kalu- 

13* 


150  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

ganga  River,  densely  fringed  with  mangrove,  and  in  its 
waters  saw  a  python  swimming  bravely  toward  the 
shore.  Snakes  are  not  so  formidable  as  land-leeches, 
the  Cinghalese  and  planters  say,  and  no  one  hears  of 
many  persons  being  bitten,  though  a  great  reward  for 
an  antidote  to  the  cobra  bite  has  lately  been  offered  by 
the  Rajah  of  Travancore. 

As  we  entered  what  the  early  maps  style  "The 
Christian  Kyngdom  of  Colombo,"  though  where  they 
found  their  Christians  no  one  knows,  our  road  lay 
through  the  cinnamon  gardens,  which  are  going  out  of 
cultivation,  as  they  no  longer  pay,  although  the  cinna- 
mon laurel  is  a  spice-grove  in  itself,  giving  cinnamon 
from  its  bark,  camphor  from  the  roots,  clove  oil  from 
its  leaves.  The  plant  grows  wild  about  the  island,  and 
is  cut  and  peeled  by  the  natives  at  no  cost  save  that 
of  children's  labor,  which  they  do  not  count  as  cost  at 
all.  The  scene  in  the  gardens  that  still  remain  was 
charming :  the  cinnamon-laurel  bushes  contrasted  well 
with  the  red  soil,  and  the  air  was  alive  with  dragon- 
flies,  moths,  and  winged-beetles,  while  the  softness  of 
the  evening  breeze  had  tempted  out  the  half-caste 
Dutch  "burgher"  families  of  the  city,  who  were  driv- 
ing and  walking  clothed  in  white,  the  ladies  with  their 
jet  hair  dressed  with  natural  flowers.  The  setting  sun 
threw  brightness  without  heat  into  the  gay  scene. 

A  friend  who  had  horses  ready  for  us  at  the  hotel 
where  the  mail-coach  stopped,  said  that  it  was  not  too 
late  for  a  ride  through  the  fort,  or  European  town  in- 
side the  walls;  so,  cantering  along  the  esplanade, 
where  the  officers  of  the  garrison  were  enjoying  their 
evening  ride,  we  crossed  the  moat,  and  found  ourselves 
in  what  is  perhaps  the  most  graceful  street  in  the 
world : — a  double  range  of  long  low  houses  of  bright 
white  stone,  with  deep  piazzas,  buried  in  masses  of 


MARITIME    CEYLON.  151 

bright  foliage,  in  which  the  fire-flies  were  beginning 
to  play.  In  the  center  of  the  fort  is  an  Italian  cam- 
panile, which  serves  at  once  as  a  belfry,  a  clock-tower, 
and  a  light-house.  In  the  morning,  before  sunrise,  we 
climbed  this  tower  for  the  view.  The  central  range 
stood  up  sharply  on  the  eastern  sky,  as  the  sun  was 
still  hid  behind  it,  and  to  the  southeast  there  towered 
high  the  peak  where  Adam  mourned  his  son  a  hundred 
years.  In  color,  shape,  and  height,  the  Cinghalese 
Alps  resemble  the  Central  Apennines,  and  the  view 
from  Columbo  is  singularly  like  that  from  Pesaro  on 
the  Adriatic.  As  we  looked  landwards  from  the  cam- 
panile, the  native  town  was  mirrored  in  the  lake,  and 
outside  the  city  the  white-coated  troops  were  marching 
by  companies  on  to  the  parade-ground,  whence  we 
could  faintly  hear  the  distant  bands. 

Driving  back  in  a  carriage,  shaped  like  a  street  cab, 
but  with  fixed  Venetians  instead  of  sides  and  windows, 
we  visited  the  curing  establishment  of  the  Ceylon 
Coffee  Company,  where  the  coffee  from  the  hills  is 
dried  and  sorted.  Thousands  of  native  girls  are  em- 
ployed in  coffee-picking  at  the  various  stores,  but  it  is 
doubted  whether  the  whole  of  this  labor  is  not  wasted, 
the  berries  being  sorted  according  to  their  shape  and 
size — characteristics  which  seem  in  no  way  to  affect  the 
flavor.  The  Ceylon  exporters  say  that  if  we  choose  to 
pay  twice  as  much  for  shapely  as  for  ill-shaped  berries, 
it  is  no  business  of  theirs  to  refuse  to  humor  us  by 
sorting. 

The  most  remarkable  institution  in  Columbo  is  the 
steam  factory  where  the  government  make  or  mend 
such  machinery  as  their  experts  certify  cannot  be  dealt 
with  at  any  private  works  existing  in  the  island.  The 
government  elephants  are  kept  at  the  same  place,  but 
I  found  them  at  work  up  country  on  the  Kandy  road. 


152  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

In  passing  through  the  native  town  upon  Slave 
Island,  we  saw  some  French  Catholic  priests  in  their 
working  jungle  dresses  of  blue  serge.  They  have  met 
with  singular  successes  in  Ceylon,  having  made  150,000 
converts,  while  the  English  and  American  missions 
have  between  them  only  30,000  natives.  The  Protest- 
ant missionaries  in  Ceylon  complain  much  of  the  plant- 
ers^ whom  they  accuse  of  declaring,  when  they  wish  to 
hire  men,  that  "  no  Christian  need  apply;"  but  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact  that  neither  Protestants  nor  Catholics 
can  make  converts  among  the  self-supported  "  Moor- 
men," the  active  pushing  inhabitants  of  the  ports,  who 
are  Mohammedans  to  a  man.  The  chief  cause  of  the 
success  of  the  Catholics  among  the  Cinghalese  seems 
to  be  the  remarkable  earnestness  of  the  French  and 
Italian  missionary  priests.  Our  English  missionaries 
in  the  East  are  too  often  men  incapable  of  bearing 
fatigue  or  climate ;  ignorant  of  every  trade,  and  inferior 
even  in  teaching  and  preaching  powers  to  their  rivals. 
It  is  no  easy  matter  to  spread  Christianity  among  the 
Cinghalese,  the  inventors  of  Buddhism,  the  most  an- 
cient and  most  widely  spread  of  all  the  religions  of  the 
world.  Every  Buddhist  firmly  believes  in  the  potential 
perfection  of  man,  and  is  incapable  of  understanding 
the  ideas  of  original  sin  and  redemption  ;  and  a  Cin- 
ghalese Buddhist — passionless  himself— cannot  com- 
prehend the  passionate  worship  that  Christianity  re- 
quires. The  Catholics,  however,  do  not  neglect  the 
Eastern  field  for  missionary  labor.  Four  of  their 
bishops  from  Cochin  China  and  Japan  were  met  by  me 
in  Galle,  upon  their  way  to  Rome. 

Our  drive  was  brought  to  an  end  by  a  visit  to  the 
old  Dutch  quarter — a  careful  imitation  of  Amsterdam ; 
indeed,  one  of  its  roads  still  bears  the  portentous  Bata- 
vian  name  of  Dam  Street.  Their  straight  canals,  and 


MARITIME    CEYLON.  153 

formal  lines  of  trees,  the  Hollanders  have  carried  with 
them  throughout  the  world;  but  in  Columbo,  not  con- 
tent with  manufacturing  imitation  canals,  that  began 
and  ended  in  a  wall,  they  dug  great  artificial  lakes  to 
recall  their  well-loved  Hague. 

The  same  evening,  I  set  off  by  the  new  railway  for 
Kandy  and  Nuwara  Ellia  (pronounced  Nooralia)  in  the 
hills.  Having  no  experience  of  the  climate  of  mountain 
regions  in  the  tropics,  I  expected  a  merely  pleasant 
change,  and  left  Columbo  Wearing  my  white  kit,  which 
served  me  well  enough  as  far  as  Ambe  Pusse — the  rail- 
way terminus,  which  we  reached  at  ten  o'clock  at  night. 
We  started  at  once  by  coach,  and  had  not  driven  far 
up  the  hills  in  the  still  moonlight  before  the  cold  be- 
came extreme,  and  I  was  saved  from  a  severe  chill  only 
by  the  kindness  of  the  coffee-planter  who  shared  the 
back  seat  with  me,  and  who,  being  well  clad  in  woolen, 
lent  me  his  great-coat.  After  this  incident,  we  chatted 
pleasantly  without  fear  of  interruption  from  our  sole 
companion — a  native  girl,  who  sat  silently  chewing 
betel  all  the  way — and  reached  Kaudy  before  dawn. 
Telling  the  hotel  servants  to  wake  me  in  an  hour,  I 
wrapped  myself  in  a  blanket — the  first  I  had  seen  since 
I  left  Australia — and  enjoyed  a  refreshing  sleep. 


154  GREATER  BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    II. 

KANDT. 

THE  early  morning  was  foggy  and  cold  as  an  October 
dawn  in  an  English  forest ;  but  before  I  had  been  long 
in  the  gardens  of  the  Government  House,  the  sun  rose, 
and  the  heat  returned  once  more.  After  wandering 
among  the  petunias  and  fan-palms  of  the  gardens,  I 
passed  on  into  the  city,  the  former  capital  of  the 
Kandian  or  highland  kingdom,  and  one  of  the  holiest 
of  Buddhist  towns.  The  kingdom  was  never  con- 
quered by  the  Portuguese  or  Dutch  while  they  held 
the  coasts,  and  was  not  overrun  by  us  till  1815,  while 
it  has  several  times  been  in  rebellion  since  that  date. 
The  people  still  retain  their  native  customs  in  a  high 
degree:  for  instance,  the  Kandian  husband  does  not 
take  his  wife's  inheritance  unless  he  lives  with  her  on 
her  father's  land:  if  she  lives  with  him,  she  forfeits 
her  inheritance.  Kandian  law,  indeed,  is  expressly 
maintained  by  us  except  in  the  matters  of  polygamy 
and  polyandry,  although  the  maritime  Cinghalese  are 
governed,  as  are  the  English  in  Ceylon  and  at  the 
Cape,  by  the  civil  code  of  Holland. 

The  difference  between  the  Kandian  and  coast  Cin- 
ghalese is  very  great.  At  Kandy,  I  found  the  men 
wearing  flowing  crimson  robes  and  flat-topped  caps, 
while  their  faces  wei*e  lighter  in  color  than  those  of 
the  coast  people,  and  many  of  them  had  beards.  The 
women  also  wore  the  nose-ring  in  a  different  way,  and 
were  clothed  above  as  well  as  below  the  waist.  It  is 


KANDY.  155 

possible  that  some  day  we  may  unfortunately  hear 
more  of  this  energetic  and  warlike  people. 

The  city  is  one  that  dwells  long  in  the  mind.  The 
Upper  Town  is  one  great  garden,  so  numerous  are 
the  sacred  groves,  vocal  with  the  song  of  the  Eastern 
orioles,  but  here  and  there  are  dotted  about  pagoda- 
shaped  temples,  identical  in  form  with  those  of  Tartary 
two  thousand  miles  away,  and  from  these  there  pro- 
ceeds a  roar  of  tomtoms  that  almost  drowns  the  song. 
One  of  these  temples  contains  the  holiest  of  Buddhist 
relics,  the  tooth  of  Buddha,  which  is  yearly  carried  in 
a  grand  procession.  "When  we  first  annexed  the  Kan- 
dian  kingdom,  we  recognized  the  Buddhist  Church, 
made  our  officers  take  part  in  the  procession  of  the 
Sacred  Tooth,  and  sent  a  State  offering  to  the  shrine. 
Times  are  changed  since  then,  but  the  Buddhist  priests 
are  still  exempt  from  certain  taxes.  All  round  the 
sacred  inclosures  are  ornamented  walls,  writh  holy 
sculptured  figures;  and  in  the  Lower  Town  are  fresh- 
water lakes  and  tanks,  formed  by  damming  the  Mavali- 
ganga  Elver,  and  also,  in  some  measure,  holy.  An 
atmosphere  of  Buddhism  pervades  all  Kandy. 

From  Kandy,  I  visited  the  coffee-district  of  which  it 
is  the  capital  and  center,  but  I  was  much  disappointed 
with  regard  to  the  amount  of  land  that  is  still  open  to 
coffee-cultivation.  At  the  Government  Botanic  Garden 
at  Peredenia  (where  the  jalap  plant,  the  castor-oil  plant, 
and  the  ipecacuanha  were  growing  side  by  side),  I  was 
told  that  the  shrub  does  not  flourish  under  1500  nor 
over  3000  or  4000  feet  above  sea-level,  and  that  all  the 
best  coffee-land  is  already  planted.  Coffee-growing  has 
already  done  so  much  for  Ceylon  that  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  it  has  not  reached  its  limit:  in  thirty-three  years 
it  has  doubled  her  trade  ten  times,  and  to  England 
alone  she  now  sends  two  millions'  worth  of  coffee  every 


156  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

year.  The  central  district  of  the  island,  in  which  lie 
the  hills  and  coffee-country,  is,  with  the  exception  of 
tlie  towns,  politically  not  a  portion  of  Ceylon :  there 
are  English  capital,  English  management,  and  Indian 
labor,  and  the  cocoa-palm  is  unknown;  Tamil  laborers 
are  exclusively  employed  upon  the  plantations,  although 
the  carrying  trade,  involving  but  little  labor,  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Cinghalese.  JS~o  such  official  discourage- 
ment is  shown  to  the  European  planters  in  Ceylon  as 
that  which  they  experience  in  India;  and  were  there 
but  more  good  coffee-lands  and  more  capital,  all  would 
be  well.  The  planters  say  that,  after  two  years'  heavy 
expenditure  and  dead  loss,  20  per  cent,  can  be  made 
by  men  who  take  in  sufficient  capital,  but  that  no  one 
ever  does  take  capital  enough  for  the  land  he  buys,  and 
that  they  all  have  to  borrow  from  one  of  the  Columbo 
companies  at  12  per  cent.,  and  are  then  bound  to  ship 
their  coffee  through  that  company  alone.  It  is  re- 
garded as  an  open  question  by  many  disinterested 
friends  of  Ceylon  whether  it  might  not  be  wise  for  the 
local  government  to  advance  money  to  the  planters; 
but  besides  the  fear  of  jobbery,  there  is  the  objection 
to  this  course,  that  the  government,  becoming  inter- 
ested in  the  success  of  coffee-planting,  might  also  come 
to  connive  at  the  oppression  of  the  native  laborers. 
This  oppression  of  the  people  lies  at  the  bottom  of  that 
Dutch  system  which  is  often  held  up  for  our  imitation 
in  Ceylon. 

Those  who  narrate  to  us  the  effects  of  the  Java 
system  forget  that  it  is  not  denied  that  in  the  tropical 
islands,  with  an  idle  population  and  a  rich  soil,  com- 
pulsory labor  may  be  the  only  way  of  developing  the 
resources  of  the  countries,  but  they  fail  to  show  the 
justification  for  our  developing  the  resources  of  the 
country  by  such  means.  The  Dutch  culture-system  puts 


KANDY.  157 

a  planter  down  upon  the  crown  lands,  and,  having 
made  advances  to  him,  leaves  it  to  him  to  find  out 
how  he  shall  repay  the  government.  Forced  labor 
— under  whatever  name — is  the  natural  result. 

The  Dutch,  moreover,  bribe  the  great  native  chiefs 
by  princely  salaries  and  vast  percentage  upon  the 
crops  their  people  raise,  and  force  the  native  agri- 
culturists to  grow  spices  for  the  Royal  Market  of 
Amsterdam.  Of  the  purchase  of  these  spices  the  gov- 
ernment has  a  monopoly :  it  buys  them  at  what  price 
it  will,  and,  selling  again  in  Europe  to  the  world, 
clears  annually  some  £4,000,000  sterling  by  the  job. 
That  plunder,  slavery,  and  famine  often  follow  the 
extension  of  their  system  is  nothing  to  the. Dutch. 
Strict  press-laws  prevent  the  Dutch  at  home  from 
hearing  anything  of  the  discontent  in  Java,  except 
when  famine  or  insurrection  calls  attention  to  the  isle; 
and  ,£4,000,000  a  year  profit,  and  half  the  expenses  of 
their  navy  paid  for  them  by  one  island  in  the  Eastern 
seas,  make  up  for  many  deaths  of  brown-faced  people 
by  starvation. 

The  Dutch  often  deny  that  the  government  retains 
the  monopoly  of  export ;  but  the  fact  of  the  matter  is 
that  the  Dutch  Trading  Company,  who  have  the  mo- 
nopoly of  the  exports  of  the  produce  of  crown  lands — 
which  amount  to  two-thirds  of  the  total  exports  of  the 
isle — are  mere  agents  of  the  government. 

It  is  hard  to  say  that,  apart  from  the  nature  of  the 
culture-system,  the  Dutch  principle  of  making  a  profit 
out  of  the  countries  which  they  rule  is  inconsistent 
with  the  position  of  a  Christian  nation.  It  is  the 
ancient  system  of  countries  having  possessions  in  the 
East,  and  upon  our  side  we  are  not  able  to  show  any 
definite  reasons  in  favor  of  our  course  of  scrupulously 
keeping  separate  the  Indian  revenue,  and  spending 

VOL.  II.  14 


158  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Indian  profits  upon  India  and  Cinghalese  in  Ceylon, 
except  such  reasons  as  would  logically  lead  to  our 
quitting  India  altogether.  That  the  Dutch  should 
make  a  profit  out  of  Java  is  perhaps  not  more  im- 
moral than  that  they  should  be  there.  At  the  same 
time,  the  character  of  the  Dutch  system  lowers  the 
tone  of  the  whole  Dutch  nation,  and  especially  of  those 
who  have  any  connection  with  the  Indies,  and  effectu- 
ally prevents  future  amendment.  With  our  system, 
there  is  some  chance  of  right  being  done,  so  small  is 
our  self-interest  in  the  wrong.  From  the  fact  that  no 
surplus  is  sent  home  from  Ceylon,  she  is  at  least  free 
from  that  bane  of  Java, — the  desire  of  the  local  au- 
thorities to  increase  as  much  as  possible  the  valuable 
productions  of  their  districts,  even  at  the  risk  of  famine, 
provided  only  that  they  may  hope  to  put  oft*  the  famine 
until  after  their  time — a  desire  that  produces  the  result 
that  subaltern  Dutch  officers  who  observe  in  their  in- 
tegrity the  admirable  rules  which  have  been  made  for 
the  protection  of  the  native  population  are  heartily 
abused  for  their  ridiculous  scrupulosity,  as  it  is  styled. 
Not  to  be  carried  away  by  the  material  success  of  the 
Dutch  system,  it  is  as  well  to  bear  in  mind  its  secret 
history.  A  private  company — the  Dutch  Trading 
Society — was  founded  at  Amsterdam  in  1824,  the  then 
King  being  the  largest  shareholder.  The  company 
was  in  difficulties  in  1830,  when  the  King,  finding  he 
was  losing  money  fast,  sent  out  as  Governor-General 
of  the  Dutch  East  Indies  his  personal  friend  Van  den 
Bosch.  The  next  year,  the  culture-system,  with  all  its 
attendant  horrors,  was  introduced  into  Java  by  Van  den 
Bosch,  the  Dutch  Trading  Society  being  made  agents 
for  the  government.  The  result  was  the  extraordinary 
prosperity  of  the  company,  and  the  leaving  by  the  mer- 
chant-king of  a  private  fortune  of  fabulous  amount. 


KANDY.  159 

The  Dutch  system  has  been  defended  by  every  con- 
ceivable kind  of  blind  misrepresentation ;  it  has  even 
been  declared,  by  writers  who  ought  certainly  to  know 
better,  that  the  four  millions  of  surplus  that  Holland 
draws  from  Java,  being  profits  on  trade,  are  not  taxa- 
tion !  Even  the  blindest  admirers  of  the  system  are 
forced,  however,  to  admit  that  it  involves  the  absolute 
prohibition  of  missionary  enterprise,  and  total  exclu- 
sion from  knowledge  of  the  Java  people. 

The  Ceylon  planters  have  at  present  political  as  well 
as  financial  difficulties  on  their  hands.  They  have 
petitioned  the  Queen  for  "  self-government  for  Cey- 
lon," and  for  control  of  the  revenue  by  "representa- 
tives of  the  public" — excellent  principles,  if  "  public" 
meant  public,  and  "Ceylon,"  Ceylon;  but,  when  we 
inquire  of  the  planters  what  they  really  mean,  we  find 
that  by  "Ceylon"  they  understand  Galle  and  Columbo 
Fort,  and  by  "the  public"  they  mean  themselves. 
There  are  at  present  six  unofficial  members  of  the 
Council :  of  these,  the  whites  have  three  members,  the 
Dutch  burghers  one,  and  the  natives  two;  and  the 
planters  expect  the  same  proportions  to  be  kept  in  a 
Council  to  which  supreme  power  shall  be  intrusted  in 
the  disposition  of  the  revenues.  They  are,  indeed, 
careful  to  explain  that  they  in  no  way  desire  the  exten- 
sion of  representative  institutions  to  Ceylon. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  the  English  traveler  in 
Ceylon  is  the  apparent  slightness  of  our  hold  upon  the 
country.  In  my  journey  from  Galle  to  Columbo,  by 
early  morning  and  mid- day,  I  met  no  white  man;  from 
Columbo  to  Kandy,  I  traveled  with  one,  but  met  none; 
at  Kandy,  I  saw  no  whites ;  at  Nuwara  Ellia,  not  half 
a  dozen.  On  my  return,  I  saw  no  whites  between 
Nuwara  Ellia  and  Ambe  Pusse,  where  there  was  a  white 
man  in  the  railway-station;  and  on  my  return  by  even- 


160  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

ing  from  Columboto  Galle,in  all  the  thronging  crowds 
along  the  roads  there  was  not  a  single  European. 
There  are  hundreds  of  Cinghalese  in  the  interior  who 
live  and  die  and  never  see  a  white  man.  Out  of  the 
two  and  a  quarter  millions  of  people  who  dwell  in  what 
the  planters  call  the  "colony  of  Ceylon,"  there  are  but 
3000  Europeans,  of  whom  1500  are  our  soldiers,  and 
250  our  civilians.  Of  the  European  non-official  class, 
there  are  but  1300  persons,  or  about  500  grown-up  men. 
The  proposition  of  the  Planters'  Association  is  that  we 
should  confide  the  despotic  government  over  two  and 
a  quarter  millions  of  Buddhist,  Mohammedan,  and  Hin- 
doo laborers  to  these  500  English  Christian  employers. 
It  is  not  the  Ceylon  planters  who  have  a  grievance 
against  us,  but  we  who  have  a  serious  complaint  against 
them;  so  flourishing  a  dependency  should  certainly 
provide  for  all  the  costs  of  her  defense. 

Some  of  the  mountain  views  between  Kandy  and 
Nuwara  Ellia  are  full  of  grandeur,  though  they  lack 
the  New  Zealand  snows;  but  none  can  match,  for 
variety  and  color,  that  which  I  saw  on  my  return  from 
the  ascent  to  the  Kaduganava  Pass,  where  you  look 
over  a  foreground  of  giant-leaved  talipot  and  slender 
areca  palms  and  tall  bamboos,  lit  with  the  scarlet 
blooms  of  the  cotton-tree,  on  to  a  plain  dotted  with 
banyan-tree  groves  and  broken  by  wooded  hills.  On 
either  side,  the  deep  valley-bottoms  are  carpeted  with 
bright  green — the  wet  rice-lands,  or  terraced  paddy- 
fields,  from  which  the  natives  gather  crop  after  crop 
throughout  the  year. 

In  the  union  of  rich  foliage  with  deep  color  and 
grand  forms,  no  scenery  save  that  of  New  Zealand  can 
bear  comparison  with  that  of  the  hill  country  of  Ceylon, 
unless,  indeed,  it  be  the  scenery  of  Java  and  the  far 
Eastern  Isles. 


MADRAS   TO   CALCUTTA.  161 


CHAPTER    III. 

MADKAS   TO   CALCUTTA. 

SPENDING  but  a  single  day  in  Madras — an  inferior 
Columbo — I  passed  on  to  Calcutta  with  a  pleasant 
remembrance  of  the  air  of  prosperity  that  hangs  about 
the  chief  city  of  what  is  still  called  by  Bengal  civilians 
"  The  Benighted  Presidency."  Small  as  are  the  houses, 
poor  as  are  the  shops,  every  one  looks  well-to-do,  and 
everybody  happy,  from  the  not  undeservedly  famed 
cooks  at  the  club  to  the  catamaran  men  on  the  shore. 
Coffee  and  good  government  have  of  late  done  much 
for  Madras. 

The  surf  consists  of  two  lines  of  rollers,  and  is  alto- 
gether inferior  to  the  fine-weather  swell  on  the  west 
coast  of  New  Zealand,  and  only  to  be  dignified  and 
promoted  into  surfship  by  men  of  that  fine  imagination 
which  will  lead  them  to  sniff  the  spices  a  day  before 
they  reach  Ceylon,  or  the  pork  and  molasses  when  off 
Nantucket  light-ship.  The  row  through  the  first  roller 
in  the  lumbering  Massullah  boat,  manned  by  a  dozen 
sinewy  blacks,  the  waiting  for  a  chance  between  the 
first  and  second  lines  of  spray,  and  then  the  dash  for 
shore,  the  crew  singing  their  measured  "Ah!  lab! 
Idlala ! — ah  !  lah !  Idlala !"  the  stroke  coming  with  the 
accented  syllable,  and  the  helmsman  shrieking  with 
excitement,  is  a  more  pretentious  ceremony  than  that 
which  accompanies  the  crossing  of  Hokitika  bar,  but 
the  passage  is  a  far  less  dangerous  one.  The  Massullah 

14* 


162  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

boats  are  like  empty  hay-barges  on  the  Thames,  but 
built  without  nails,  so  that  they  "  give"  instead  of 
breaking  up  when  battered  by  the  sand  on  one  side 
and  the  seas  upon  the  other.  This  is  a  very  wise  pre- 
caution in  the  case  of  boats  which  are  always  made  to 
take  the  shore  broadside  on.  The  first  sea  that  strikes 
the  boat  either  shoots  the  passenger  on  to  the  dry 
sand,  or  puts  him  where  he  can  easily  be  caught  by 
the  natives  on  the  beach,  but  the  Massullah  boat  her- 
self gets  a  terrible  banging  before  the  crew  can  haul 
her  out  of  reach  of  the  seas. 

Sighting  the  Temple  of  Juggernauth  and  one  palm- 
tree,  but  seeing  no  land,  we  entered  the  Hoogly,  steam- 
ing between  light-houses,  guard-ships,  and  buoys,  but 
not  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  low  land  of  the  Sundera- 
bunds  till  we  had  been  many  hours  in  "the  river." 
After  lying  right  off  the  tiger-infested  island  of  Saugur, 
we  started  on  our  run  up  to  Calcutta  before  the  sun 
was  risen.  Compared  with  Ceylon,  the  scene  was 
English;  there  was  nothing  tropical  about  it  except 
the  mist  upon  the  land;  and  low  villas  and  distant 
factory-chimneys  reminded  one  of  the  Thames  between 
Battersea  and  Fulham.  Coming  into  Garden  Reach, 
where  large  ships  anchor  before  they  sail,  we  had  a 
long,  low  building  on  our  right,  gaudy  and  archi- 
tecturally hideous,  but  from  its  vast  size  almost  im- 
posing: it  was  the  palace  of  the  dethroned  King  of 
Oude,  the  place  where,  it  is  said,  are  carried  on  deeds 
become  impossible  in  Lucknow.  Such  has  been  the 
extravagance  of  the  King  that  the  government  of  India 
has  lately  interfered,  and  appointed  a  commission  to 
pay  his  debts,  and  deduct  them  from  his  income  of 
.£120,000  a  year;  for  we  pay  into  the  privy  purse  of 
the  dethroned  Vizier  of  Oude  exactly  twice  the  yearly 
sum  that  we  set  aside  for  that  of  Queen  Victoria. 


MADRAS    TO    CALCUTTA.  163 

Whatever  income  is  allowed  to  native  princes,  they 
always  spend  the  double.  The  experience  of  the 
Dutch  in  Java  and  our  own  in  India  is  uniform  in  this 
respect.  Eemoved  from  that  slight  restraint  upon 
expenditure  which  the  fear  of  bankruptcy  or  revolution 
forces  upon  reigning  kings,  native  princes  supported 
by  European  governments  run  recklessly  into  debt. 
The  commission  which  was  sitting  upon  the  debts  of 
the  King  of  Oude  while  I  was  in  Calcutta  warned  him 
that,  if  he  offended  a  second  time,  government  would 
for  the  future  spend  his  income  for  him.  It  is  not  the 
King's  extravagance  alone,  however,  that  is  complained 
of.  Always  notorious  for  debauchery,  he  has  now 
become  infamous  for  his  vices.  One  of  his  wives  was 
arrested  while  I  was  in  Calcutta  for  purchasing  girls 
for  the  harem,  but  the  King  himself  escaped.  For 
nine  years  he  has  never  left  his  palace,  yet  he  spends, 
we  are  told,  from  .£200,000  to  £250,000  a  year. 

In  his  extravagance  and  immorality  the  King  of 
Oude  does  not  stand  alone  in  Calcutta.  His  mode  of 
life  is  imitated  by  the  wealthy  natives;  his  vices  are 
mimicked  by  every  young  Bengalee  baboo.  It  is  a 
question  whether  we  are  not  responsible  for  the  tone 
which  has  been  taken  by  "civilization"  in  Calcutta. 
The  old  philosophy  has  gone,  and  left  nothing  in  its 
place ;  we  have  by  moral  force  destroyed  the  old  reli- 
gions in  Calcutta,  but  we  have  set  up  no  new.  Whether 
the  character  of  our  Indian  government,  at  once  level- 
ing and  paternal,  has  not  much  to  do  with  the  spread 
of  careless  sensuality  is  a  question  before  answering 
which  it  would  be  well  to  look  to  France,  where  a 
similar  government  has  for  sixteen  years  prevailed. 
In  Paris,  at  least,  democratic  despotism  is  fast  de- 
grading the  French  citizen  to  the  moral  level  of  the 
Bengalee  baboo. 


164  GEEATEE    BEITA1N. 

The  first  thing  in  Calcutta  that  I  saw  was  the  view 
of  the  Government  House  from  the  Park  Reserve — a 
miniature  Sahara  since  its  trees  were  destroyed  by  the 
great  cyclone.  The  Viceroy's  dwelling,  though  crushed 
by  groups  of  lions  and  unicorns  of  gigantic  stature  and 
astonishing  design,  is  an  imposing  building;  but  it  is 
the  only  palace  in  the  "  city  of  palaces" — a  name  which 
must  have  been  given  to  the  pestiferous  city  by  some 
one  who  had  never  seen  any  other  towns  but  Liverpool 
and  London.  The  true  city  of  palaces  is  Lucknow. 

In  Calcutta,  I  first  became  acquainted  with  that  un- 
bounded hospitality  of  the  great  mercantile  houses  in 
the  East  of  which  I  have  since  acquired  many  pleasing 
remembrances.  The  luxury  of  "  the  firm"  impresses 
the  English  traveler;  the  huge  house  is  kept  as  a 
hotel;  every  one  is  welcome  to  dinner,  breakfast,  and 
bed  in  the  veranda,  or  in  a  room,  if  he  can  sleep 
under  a  roof  in  the  hot  weather.  Sometimes  two  and 
sometimes  twenty  sit  down  to  the  meals,  and  always 
without  notice  to  the  butlers  or  the  cooks,  but  every 
one  is  welcome,  down  to  the  friend  of  a  friend's  friend ; 
and  junior  clerks  will  write  letters  of  introduction  to 
members  of  the  firm,  which  secure  the  bearer  a  most 
hospitable  welcome  from  the  other  clerks,  even  when 
all  the  partners  are  away.  "If  Brown  is  not  there, 
Smith  will  be,  and  if  he's  away,  why  then  Johnson 
will  put  you  up,"  is  the  form  of  invitation  to  the  hos- 
pitalities of  an  Eastern  firm.  The  finest  of  fruits  are 
on  table  between  five  and  six,  and  tea  and  iced  drinks 
are  ready  at  all  times,  from  dawn  to  breakfast — a  cere- 
mony which  takes  place  at  ten.  To  the  regular  meals 
you  come  in  or  not  as  you  please,  and  no  one  trained  in 
Calcutta  or  Bombay  can  conceive  offense  being  taken  by 
a  host  at  his  guest  accepting,  without  consulting  him, 
invitations  to  dine  out  in  the  city,  or  to  spend  some 


MADfiAS    TO    CALCUTTA.  165 

days  at  a  villa  in  its  outskirts.  Servants  are  in  the 
corridors  by  day  and  night  at  the  call  of  guests,  and 
your  entertainers  tell  you  that,  although  they  have  not 
time  to  go  about  with  you,  servants  will  always  be 
ready  to  drive  you  at  sunset  to  the  band-stand  in  the 
carriage  of  some  member  of  the  firm. 

The  population  of  Calcutta  is  as  motley  as  that  of 
Galle,  though  the  constituents  are  not  the  same. 
Greeks,  Armenians,  and  Burmese,  besides  many  Eura- 
sians, or  English-speaking  half-castes,  mingle  with  the 
mass  of  Indian  Mohammedans  and  Hindoos.  The  hot 
weather  having  suddenly  set  in,  the  Calcutta  officials, 
happier  than  the  merchants — who,  however,  care  little 
about  heat  when  trade  is  good — were  starting  for 
Simla  in  a  body,  "just  as  they  were  warming  to  their 
work,"  as  the  Calcutta  people  say,  and,  finding  that 
there  was  nothing  to  be  done  in  the  stifling  city,  I,  too, 
determined  to  set  off'. 

The  heat  was  great  at  night,  and  the  noisy  native 
crows  and  whistling  kites  held  durbars  inside  my 
window  in  the  only  cool  hour  of  the  twenty-four — 
namely,  that  which  begins  at  dawn — and  thus  hast- 
ened my  departure  from  Calcutta  by  preventing  me 
from  taking  rest  while  in  it.  Hearing  that  at  Patna 
there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  or  learnt,  I  traveled  from 
Calcutta  to  Benares — 500  miles — in  the  same  train 
and  railway  carriage.  Our  first  long  stoppage  was  at 
Chandernagore,  but,  as  the  native  baggage-coolies,  or 
porters,  howl  the  station  names  in  their  own  fashion,  I 
hardly  recognized  the  city  in  the  melancholy  moan  of 
"Orn-dorn-orn-gorne,"  which  welcomed  the  train,  and 
it  was  not  till  I  saw  a  French  infantry  uniform  upon 
the  platform  that  I  remembered  that  Chandernagore, 
a  village  belonging  to  the  French,  lies  hard  by  Cal- 
cutta, to  which  city  it  was  once  a  dangerous  rival.  It 


166  GEEATEE   BEITAIN. 

is  said  that  the  French  Tetain  their  Indian  depend- 
encies, instead  of  selling  them  to  us  as  did  the  Dutch, 
in  order  that  they  may  ever  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that 
we  once  conquered  them  in  India;  but  it  would  be  hard 
to  find  any  real  ground  for  their  retention,  unless  they 
are  held  as  centers  for  the  Catholic  missions.  We  will 
not  even  permit  them  to  be  made  smuggling  depots, 
for  which  purpose  they  would  be  excellently  adapted. 
The  whole  of  the  possessions  in  India  of  the  French 
amount  together  to  only  twenty-six  leagues  square. 
Even  Pondicherry,  the  largest  and  only  French  Indian 
dependency  of  which  the  name  is  often  heard  in 
Europe,  is  cut  into  several  portions  by  strips  of  British 
territory,  and  the  whole  of  the  French-Indian  depend- 
encies are  mere  specks  of  land  isolated  in  our  vast 
territories.  The  officer  who  was  lounging  in  the 
station  was  a  native;  indeed,  in  the  territory  of  Chan- 
dernagore  there  are  but  230  Europeans,  and  but  1500 
in  all  French  India.  He  made  up  to  my  compartment 
as  though  he  would  have  got  in,  which  I  wished  that 
he  would  have  done,  as  natives  in  the  French  service 
all  speak  French,  but,  seeing  a  European,  he  edged 
away  to  a  dark  uncomfortable  compartment.  This 
action  was,  I  fear,  a  piece  of  silent  testimony  to  the 
prejudice  which  makes  our  people  in  India  almost  in- 
variably refuse  to  travel  with  a  native,  whatever  may 
be  his  rank. 

As  we  passed  through  Burdwan  and  Rajmahal, 
where  the  East  Indian  Railway  taps  the  Ganges,  the 
station  scenes  became  more  and  more  interesting. 
We  associate  with  the  word  "railway"  ideas  that 
are  peculiarly  English: — shareholders  and  directors, 
guards  in  blue,  policemen  in  dark  green,  and  porters 
in  brown  corduroy;  no  English  institution,  however, 
assumes  more  readily  an  Oriental  dress.  Station- 


MADRAS    TO    CALCUTTA.  167 

masters  and  sparrows  alone  are  English;  everything 
else  on  a  Bengal  railway  is  purely  Eastern.  Sikh 
'irregulars  jostle  begging  fakeers  in  the  stations; 
palkees  and  doolies — palankeens  and  sedans,  as  we 
should  call  them — wait  at  the  back  doors;  ticket- 
clerks  smoke  water-pipes;  an  ibis  drinks  at  the  engine- 
tank;  a  sacred  cow  looks  over  the  fence,  and  a  tame 
elephant  reaches  up  with  his  trunk  at  the  telegraph- 
wire,  on  which  sits  a  hoopoe,  while  an  Indian  vulture 
crowns  the  post. 

When  we  came  opposite  to  the  Monghyr  Hills,  the 
only  natural  objects  which  for  1600  miles  break  the 
level  of  the  great  plain  of  Hindostan,  people  of  the 
central  tribes,  small-headed  and  savage-looking,  were 
mingled  with  the  Hindoos  at  the  stations.  In  black- 
ness there  was  not  much  difference  between  the 
races,  for  low-caste  Bengalees  are  as  black  as  Guinea 
negroes. 

As  the  day  grew  hot,  a  water-carrier  with  a  well- 
filled  skin  upon  his  back  appeared  at  every  station, 
and  came  running  to  the  native  cars  in  answer  to  the 
universal  long-drawn  shout  of  "Ah !  ah !  Bheestie — e!" 

The  first  view  of  the  Ganges  calls  up  no  enthusiasm. 
The  Thames  below  Gravesend  half  dried  up  would  be 
not  unlike  it;  indeed,  the  river  itself  is  as  ugly  as 
the  Mississippi  or  Missouri,  while  its  banks  are  more 
hideous  by  far  than  theirs.  Beyond  Patna,  the  plains, 
too,  become  as  monotonous  as  the  river, — flat,  dusty, 
and  treeless,  they  are  in  *io  way  tropical  in  their  char- 
acter ;  they  lie,  indeed,  wholly  outside  the  tropics.  I 
afterward  found  that  a  man  may  cross  India  from  the 
Irawaddy  to  the  Indus,  and  see  no  tropical  scenery,  no 
tropical  cultivation.  The  aspect  of  the  Ganges  valley 
is  that  of  Cambridgeshire,  or  of  parts  of  Lincoln  seen 
after  harvest  time,  and  with  flocks  of  strange  and  bril- 


168  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

liant  birds  and  an  occasional  jackal  thrown  in.  The 
sun  is  hot — not,  indeed,  much  hotter  than  in  Aus- 
tralia, but  the  heat  is  of  a  different  kind  from  that 
encountered  by  the  English  in  Ceylon  or  the  West 
Indies.  From  a  military  point  of  view,  the  plains  may 
be  described  as  a  parade-ground  continued  to  infinity; 
and  this  explains  the  success  of  our  small  forces  against 
the  rebels  in  1857,  our  cavalry  and  artillery  having  in 
all  cases  swept  their  infantry  from  these  levels  with 
the  utmost  ease. 

A  view  over  the  plains  by  daylight  is  one  which  in 
former  times  some  old  Indians  can  never  have  enjoyed. 
Many  a  lady  in  the  days  of  palki-dawk  has  passed  a 
life  in  the  Deccan  table-land  without  ever  seeing  a 
mountain,  or  knowing  she  was  on  the  top  of  one. 
Carried  up  and  down  the  ghauts  at  night,  it  was  only 
by  the  tilting  of  her  palki  that  she  could  detect  the 
rise  or  fall,  for  day  traveling  for  ladies  was  almost 
unknown  in  India  before  it  was  introduced  with  the 
railways. 

At  Patna,  the  station  was  filled  with  crowds  of  rail- 
way coolies,  or  navvies,  as  we  should  say,  who,  with 
their  tools  and  baggage,  were  camped  out  upon  the 
platform,  smoking  peacefully.  I  afterward  found  that 
natives  have  little  idea  of  time-tables  and  departure 
hours.  When  they  want  to  go  ten  miles  by  railway, 
they  walk  straight  down  to  the  nearest  station,  and 
there  smoke  their  hookahs  till  the  train  arrives — at  the 
end  of  twenty- four  hours  or  ten  minutes,  as  the  case 
may  be.  There  is  but  one  step  that  the  more  ignorant 
among  the  natives  are  in  a  hurry  to  take,  and  that  is 
to  buy  their  tickets.  They  are  no  sooner  come  to  the 
terminus  than  with  one  accord  they  rush  at  the  native 
ticket-clerk,  yelling  the  name  of  the  station  to  which 
they  wish  to  go.  In  vain  he  declares  that,  the  train 


MADRAS    TO    CALCUTTA.  169 

not  being  due  for  ten  or  fifteen  hours,  there  is  plenty 
of  time  for  the  purchase.  Open-mouthed,  and  wrought 
up  almost  to  madness,  the  passengers  dance  round  him, 
screaming  "  Burdwan !"  or  "  Serampoor !"  or  whatever 
the  name  may  be,  till  at  last  he  surrenders  at  discre- 
tion. There  is  often  no  room  for  all  who  wish  to  go; 
indeed,  the  worst  point  about  the  management  of  the 
railways  lies  in  the  defective  accommodation  for  the 
native  passengers,  and  their  treatment  by  the  English 
station-masters  is  not  always  good:  I  saw  them  on 
many  occasions  terribly  kicked  and  cuffed ;  but  Indian 
station-masters  are  not  very  highly  paid,  and  are  too 
often  men  who  cannot  resist  the  temptations  to  vio- 
lence which  despotic  power  throws  in  their  way.  They 
might  ask  with  the  Missourian  in  the  United  States 
army  when  he  was  accused  of  drunkenness,  "  Whether 
Uncle  Sam  expected  to  get  all  the  cardinal  virtues  for 
fifteen  dollars  a  month?" 

The  Indian  railways  are  all  made  and  worked  by 
companies;  but  as  the  government  guarantees  the 
interest  of  five  per  cent.,  which  only  the  East  Indian, 
or  Calcutta  and  Delhi,  line  can  pay,  it  interferes  much 
in  the  management.  The  telegraph  is  both  made  and 
worked  by  government ;  and  the  reason  why  the  rail- 
ways were  not  put  upon  the  same  footing  is  that  the 
government  of  India  was  doubtful  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  borrowing  directly  the  vast  sum  required,  and 
doubtful  also  of  the  possibility  of  borrowing  it  with- 
out diminishing  its  credit. 

The  most  marked  among  the  effects  of  railways  upon 
the  state  of  India  are,  as  a  moral  change,  the  weaken- 
ing of  caste  ties — as  a  physical,  the  destruction  of  the 
Indian  forests.  It  is  found  that  if  a  rich  native  dis- 
covers that  he  can,  by  losing  caste  in  touching  his  infe- 
^riors,  travel  a  certain  distance  in  a  comfortable  second- 

VOL.  II.  15 


170  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

class  carriage  for  ten  rupees,  while  a  first-class  ticket 
costs  him  twenty,  he  will  often  risk  his  caste  to  save 
his.  pound-;  still,  caste  yields  but  slowly  to  railways 
and  the  telegraph.  It  is  but  a  very  few  years  since  one 
of  my  friends  received  a  thousand  rupees  for  pleading 
in  a  case  which  turned  on  the  question  whether  the 
paint-spot  on  Krishna's  nose,  which  is  also  a  caste  sign, 
should  be  drawn  as  a  plain  horizontal  crescent,  or  with 
a  pendant  from  the  center.  It  is  only  a  year  since,  in 
Orissa,  it  was  seen  that  Hindoo  peasants  preferred  can- 
nibalism, or  death  by  starvation,  to  defilement  by  eating 
their  bullocks. 

As  for  the  forests,  their  destruction  has  already  in 
many  places  changed  a  somewhat  moist  climate  to  one 
of  excessive  drought,  and  planting  is  now  taking  place 
with  a  view  both  to  supplying  the  railway  engines 
and  bringing  back  the  rains.  On  the  East  Indian  line, 
I  found  that  they  burnt  mixed  coal  and  wood,  but  the 
Indian  coal  is  scarce  and  bad,  and  lies  entirely  in  shal- 
low "  pockets." 

The  train  reached  Mogul-Serai,  the  junction  for 
Benares,  at  midnight  of  the  day  following  that  on 
which  it  left  Calcutta,  and,  changing  my  carriage  at 
once,  I  asked  how  long  it  would  be  before  we  started, 
to  which  the  answer  was,  "half  an  hour;"  so  I  went 
to  sleep.  Immediately,  as  it  seemed,  I  was  awakened 
by  whispering,  and,  turning,  saw  a  crowd  of  boys  and 
baggage-coolies  at  the  carriage-door.  When  I  tried 
to  discover  what  they  wanted,  my  Hindostanee  broke 
down,  and  it  was  some  time  before  I  found  that  I  had 
slept  through  the  short  journey  from  Mogul-Serai,  and 
had  dozed  on  in  the  station  till  the  lights  had  been  put 
out,  before  the  coolies  woke  me.  Crossing  the  Ganges 
by  the  bridge  of  boats,  I  found  myself  in  Benares,  the 
ancient  Varan asi,  and  sacred  capital  of  the  Hindoos. 


BENARES.  171 


CHAPTER    IV. 

BENARES. 

IN  the  comparative  cool  of  early  morning,  I  sallied 
out  on  a  stroll  through  the  outskirts  of  Benares.  Thou- 
sands of  women  were  stepping  gracefully  along  the 
crowded  roads,  bearing  on  their  heads  the  water-jars, 
while  at  every  few  paces  there  was  a  well,  at  which 
hundreds  were  waiting  along  with  the  bheesties  their 
turn  for  lowering  their  bright  gleaming  copper  cups 
to  the  well-water  to  fill  their  skins  or  vases.  All  were 
keeping  up  a  continual  chatter,  women  with  women, 
men  with  men :  all  the  tongues  were  running  cease- 
lessly. It  is  astonishing  to  see  the  indignation  that  a 
trilling  mishap  creates — such  gesticulation,  such  shout- 
ing, and  loud  talk,  you  would  think  that  murder  at 
least  was  in  question.  The  world  cannot  show  the 
Hindoo's  equal  as  a  babbler ;  the  women  talk  while 
they  grind  corn,  the  men  while  they  smoke  their  water- 
pipes;  your  true  Hindoo  is  never  quiet;  when  not  talk- 
ing, he  is  playing  on  his  tomtom. 

The  Doorgha  Khond,  the  famed  Temple  of  the  Sacred 
Monkeys,  I  found  thronged  with  worshipers,  and  gar- 
landed in  every  part  with  roses:  it  overhangs  one  of 
the  best  holy  tanks  in  India,  but  has  not  much  beauty 
or  grandeur,  and  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  swarms 
of  huge,  fat-paunched,  yellow-bearded,  holy  monkeys, 
whose  outposts  hold  one  quarter  of  the  city,  and  whose 
main  body  forms  a  living  roof  to  the  temple.  A  sin- 
gular contrast  to  the  Doorgha  Khond  was  the  Queen's 


172  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

College  for  native  students,  built  in  a  mixture  of  Tudor 
and  Hindoo  architecture.  The  view  from  the  roof  is 
noticeable,  depending  as  it  does  for  its  beauty  on  the 
mingling  of  the  rich  green  of  the  timber  with  the  gay 
colors  of  the  painted  native  huts.  Over  the  trees  are 
seen  the  minarets  at  the  river- side,  and  an  unwonted 
life  was  given  to  the  view  by  the  smoke  and  flames 
that  were  rising  from  two  burning  huts,  in  widely- 
separated  districts  of  the  native  town.  It  is  said  that 
the  natives,  whenever  they  quarrel  with  their  neigh- 
bors, always  take  the  first  opportunity  of  firing  their 
huts;  but  in  truth  the  huts  in  the  hot  weather  almost 
fire  themselves,  so  inflammable  are  their  roofs  and  sides. 
When  the  sun  had  declined  sufficiently  to  admit  of 
another  excursion,  I  started  from  my  bungalow,  and, 
passing  through  the  elephant-corral,  went  down  with 
a  guide  to  the  ghauts,  the  observatory  of  Jai  Singh, 
and  the  Golden  Temple.  From  the  minarets  of  the 
mosque  of  Aurungzebe  I  had  a  lovely  sunset  view  of 
the  ghauts,  the  city,  and  the  Ganges ;  but  the  real 
sight  of  Benares,  after  all,  lies  in  a  walk  through  the 
tortuous  passages  that  do  duty  for  streets.  No  carriages 
can  pass  them,  they  are  so  narrow.  You  walk  pre- 
ceded by  your  guide,  who  warns  the  people,  that  they 
may  stand  aside  and  not  be  defiled  by  your  touch,  for 
that  is  the  real  secret  of  the  apparent  respect  paid  to 
you  in  Benares;  but  the  sacred  cows  are  so  numerous 
and  so  obstinate  that  you  cannot  avoid  sometimes 
jostling  them.  The  scene  in  the  passages  is  the  most 
Indian  in  India.  The  gaudy-  dresses  of  the  Hindoo 
princes  spending  a  week  in  purification  at  the  holy 
place,  the  frescoed  fronts  of  the  shops  and  houses,  the 
deafening  beating  of  the  tomtoms,  and,  above  all,  the 
smoke  and  sickening  smell  from  the  "  burning  ghauts" 
that  meets  you,  mingled  with  a  sweeter  smell  of  burn- 


BENARES.  173 

ing  spices,  as  you  work  your  way  through  the  vast 
crowds  of  pilgrims  who  are  pouring  up  from  the  river's 
bank — all  alike  are  strange  to  the  English  traveler, 
and  fill  his  mind  with  that  indescribable  awe  which 
everywhere  accompanies  the  sight  of  scenes  and  cere- 
monies that  we  do  not  understand.  When  once  you 
are  on  the  Ganges  bank  itself,  the  scene  is  wilder  still : 
— a  river  front  of  some  three  miles,  faced  with  lofty 
ghauts,  or  flights  of  river  stairs,  over  which  rise,  pile 
above  pile,  in  sublime  confusion,  lofty  palaces  with  oriel 
windows  hanging  over  the  sacred  stream ;  observato- 
ries with  giant  sun-dials,  gilt  domes  (golden,  the  story 
runs),  and  silver  minarets.  On  the  ghauts,  rows  of 
fires,  each  with  a  smouldering  body ;  on  the  river,  boat- 
loads of  pilgrims,  and  fakeers  praying  while  they  float ; 
under  the  houses,  lines  of  prostrate  bodies — those  of 
the  sick — brought  to  the  sacred  Ganges  to  die — or,  say 
our  government  spies,  to  be  murdered  by  suffocation 
with  sacred  mud ;  while  prowling  about  are  the  wolf- 
like  fanatics  who  feed  on  putrid  flesh.  The  whole  is 
lit  by  a  sickly  sun  fitfully  glaring  through  the  smoke, 
while  the  Ganges  stream  is  half  obscured  by  the  river 
fog  and  reek  of  the  hot  earth. 

The  lofty  pavilions  that  crown  the  river  front  are 
ornamented  with  paintings  of  every  beast  that  walks 
and  bird  that  flies,  with  monsters,  too — pink  and  green 
and  spotted — with  griffins,  dragons,  arid  elephant- 
headed  gods  embracing  dancing-girls.  Here  and  there 
are  representations  of  red-coated  soldiers — English,  it 
would  seem,  for  they  have  white  faces,  but  so,  the 
Maories  say,  have  the  New  Zealand  fairies,  who  are 
certainly  not  British.  The  Benares  taste  for  painting 
leads  to  the  decoration  with  pink  and  yellow  spots  of 
the  very  cows.  The  tiger  is  the  commonest  of  all  the 
figures  on  the  walls — indeed,  the  explanation  that  the 

15* 


174  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

representations  are  allegorical,  or  that  gods  are  pictured 
in  tiger  shape,  has  not  removed  from  my  mind  the 
belief  that  the  tiger  must  have  been  worshiped  in 
India  at  some  early  date.  All  Easterns  are  inclined 
to  worship  the  beasts  that  eat  them :  the  Javanese  light 
floating  sacrifices  to  their  river  crocodiles ;  the  Scindees 
at  Kurrachee  venerate  the  sacred  muggur,  or  man-eat- 
ing alligator;  the  hill-tribes  pray  to  snakes;  indeed, 
to  a  new-comer,  all  Indian  religion  has  the  air  of  devil- 
worship,  or  worship  of  the  destructive  principle  in  some 
shape :  the  gods  are  drawn  as  grinning  fiends,  they  are 
propitiated  by  infernal  music,  they  are  often  worshiped 
with  obscene  and  hideous  rites.  There  is  even  some- 
thing cruel  in  the  monotonous  roar  of  the  great  tom- 
toms ;  the  sound  seems  to  connect  itself  with  widow- 
burning,  with  child-murder,  with  Juggernauth  pro- 
cessions. Since  the  earliest  known  times,  the  tomtom 
has  been  used  to  drown  the  cries  of  tortured  fanatics ; 
its  booming  is  bound  up  with  the  thousand  barbarisms 
of  false  religion.  If  the  scene  on  the  Benares  ghauts 
is  full  of  horrors,  we  must  not  forget  that  Hindooism 
is  a  creed  of  fear  and  horror,  not  of  love. 

The  government  of  India  has  lately  instituted  an  in- 
quiry into  the  alleged  abuses  of  the  custom  of  taking 
sick  Hindoos  to  the  Ganges-side  to  die,  with  a  view  to 
regulating  or  suppressing  the  practice  which  prevails 
in  the  river-side  portion  of  Lower  Bengal.  At  Ben- 
ares, Bengal  people  are  still  taken  to  the  river-side, 
but  not  so  other  natives,  as  Hindoos  dying  anywhere 
in  the  sacred  city  have  all  the  blessings  which  the  most 
holy  death  can  possibly  secure ;  the  Benares  Shastra, 
moreover,  forbids  the  practice,  and  I  saw  but  two  cases 
of  it  in  the  city,  although  I  had  seen  many  near  Cal- 
cutta. Not  only  are  aged  people  brought  from  their 
sick-rooms,  laid  in  the  burning  sun,  and  half  suffocated 


BENARES.  175 

with  the  Ganges  water  poured  down  their  throats, 
but,  owing  to  the  ridicule  which  follows  if  they  re- 
cover, or  the  selfishness  of  their  relatives,  the  water  is 
often  muddier  than  it  need  be :  hence  the  phrase 
"  ghaut  murder,"  by  which  this  custom  is  generally 
known.  Similar  customs  are  not  unheard  of  in  other 
parts  of  India,  and  even  in  Polynesia  and  North 
America.  The  Veddahs,  or  black  aborigines  of  Cey- 
lon, were,  up  to  very  lately,  in  the  habit  of  carrying 
their  dying  parents  or  children  into  the  jungle,  and, 
having  placed  a  chatty  of  water  and  some  rice  by  their 
side,  leaving  them  to  be  devoured  by  wild  beasts. 
Under  pressure  from  our  officials,  they  are  believed  to 
have  ceased  to  act  thus,  but  they  continue,  we  are  told, 
to  throw  their  dead  to  the  leopards  and  crocodiles. 
The  Maories,  too,  have  a  way  of  taking  out  to  die  alone 
those  whom  their  seers  have  pronounced  doomed  men, 
but  it  is  probable  that,  among  the  rude  races,  the  cus- 
tom which  seems  to  be  a  relic  of  human  sacrifice  has 
not  been  so  grossly  abused  as  it  has  been  by  the  Bengal 
Hindoos.  The  practice  of  Ganjatra  is  but  one  out  of 
many  similar  barbarities  that  disgrace  the  religion  of 
the  Hindoos,  but  it  is  fast  sharing  the  fate  of  suttee 
and  infanticide. 

As  I  returned  through  the  bazaar,  I  met  many  most 
unholy-looking  visitors  to  the  sacred  town.  Fierce 
Kajpoots,  with  enormous  turbans  ornamented  with  zig- 
zag stripes :  Bengal  bankers,  in  large  purple  turbans, 
curling  their  long  white  mustaches,  and  bearing  their 
critical  noses  high  aloft  as  they  daintily  picked  their 
way  over  the  garbage  of  the  streets ;  and  savage  re- 
tainers of  the  rajahs  staying  for  a  season  at  their  city 
palaces,  were  to  the  traveler's  eye  no  very  devout 
pilgrims.  In  truth,  the  immoralities  of  the  "holy 
city"  are  as  great  as  its  religious  virtues,  and  it  is  the 


176  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

chosen  ground  of  the  loose  characters  as  well  as  of  the 
pilgrims  of  the  Hindoo  world. 

In  the  whole  of  the  great  throng  in  the  bazaar, 
hardly  the  slightest  trace  of  European  dressing  was  to 
be  perceived :  the  varnished  boots  of  the  wealthier 
Hindoos  alone  bore  witness  to  the  existence  of  English 
trade — a  singular  piece  of  testimony,  this,  to  the  essen- 
tial conservatism  of  the  Oriental  mind.  With  any 
quantity  of  old  army  clothing  to  be  got  for  the  asking, 
you  never  see  a  rag  of  it  on  a  native  back — not  even 
on  that  of  the  poorest  coolie.  If  you  give  a  blanket  to 
an  out-door  servant,  he  will  cut  it  into  strips  and  wear 
them  as  a  puggree  round  his  head;  but  this  is  about  the 
only  thing  he  will  accept,  unless  to  sell  it  in  the  bazaar. 

As  I  stopped  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the  long  trains 
of  laden  camels  that  were  winding  slowly  through  the 
tortuous  streets,  I  saw  a  European  soldier  cheapening 
a  bracelet  with  a  native  jeweler.  He  was  the  first  topee 
wallah  {"  hat-fellow,"  or  "  European")  that  I  had  seen 
in  Benares  City.  Calcutta  is  the  only  town  in  North- 
ern India  in  which  you  meet  Europeans  in  your  walks 
or  rides,  and,  even  there,  there  is  but  one  European  to 
every  sixty  natives.  In  all  India,  there  are,  including 
troops,  children,  and  officials  of  all  kinds,  far  less  than 
as  many  thousands  of  Europeans  as  there  are  millions 
of  natives. 

The  evening  after  that  on  which  I  visited  the  native 
town,  I  saw  in  Secrole  cantonments,  near  Benares,  the 
India  hated  and  dreaded  by  our  troops — by  day  a 
blazing  deadly  heat  and  sun,  at  night  a  still  more 
deadly  fog — a  hot  white  fog,  into  which  the  sun  dis- 
appears half  an  hour  before  his  time  for  setting, 
and  out  of  which  he  shoots  soon  after  seven  in  the 
morning,  to  blaze  and  kill  again — a  pestiferous  fever- 
breeding  ground-fog,  out  of  which  stand  the  tops  of 


BENARES. 

the  palms,  though  their  stems  are  invisible  in  the 
steam.  Compared  with  our  English  summer  climate, 
it  seems  the  atmosphere  of  another  planet. 

Among  the  men  in  the  cantonments,  I  found  much 
of  that  demoralization  that  heat  everywhere  produces 
among  Englishmen.  The  newly-arrived  soldiers  appear 
to  pass  their  days  in  alternate  trials  of  hard  drinking 
and  of  total  abstinence,  and  are  continually  in  a  state 
of  nervous  fright,  which  in  time  must  wear  them  out 
and  make  them  an  easy  prey  to  fever.  The  officers 
who  are  fresh  from  England  often  behave  in  much  the 
same  manner  as  the  men,  though  with  them  "  belatee 
pawnee"  takes  the  place  of  plain  water  with  the 
brandy.  "Belatee  pawnee"  means,  being  translated, 
"  English  water,"  but,  when  interpreted,  it  means 
"  soda-water" — the  natives  once  believing  that  this 
was  English  river-water,  bottled  and  brought  to  India 
by  us  as  they  carry  Ganges  water  to  the  remotest  parts. 
The  superstition  is  now  at  an  end,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  natives  are  themselves  largely  employed  in  the 
making  of  soda-water,  which  is  cheaper  in  India  than 
it  is  at  home ;  but  the  name  remains. 

Our  men  kill  themselves  with  beer,  with  brandy  and 
soda-water,  and  with  careless  inattention  to  night  chills, 
and  then  blame  the  poor  climate  for  their  fevers,  or 
die  cursing  "India."  Of  course,  long  residence  in  a 
climate  winterless  and  always  hot  at  mid-day  produces 
or  intensifies  certain  diseases ;  but  brandy  and  soda- 
water  produces  more,  and  intensifies  all.  They  say  it 
is  "  soda-and-b  randy"  the  first  month,  and  then  "brancLy- 
and-soda,"  but  that  men  finally  take  to  putting  in  the 
soda-water  first,  and  then  somehow  the  brandy  always 
kills  them.  If  a  man  wears  a  flannel  belt  and  thick 
clothes  when  he  travels  by  night,  and  drinks  hot  tea, 
he  need  not  fear  India. 


178  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

In  all  ways,  Benares  is  the  type  of  India;  in  the  Se- 
crole  cantonments,  you  have  the  English  in  India,  in- 
telligent enough,  but  careless,  and  more  English  than 
they  are  at  home,  with  garrison  chaplains,  picnics,  balls, 
and  champagne  suppers  ;  hard  by,  in  the  native  town, 
the  fierce  side  of  Hindooism,  and  streets  for  an  English- 
man to  show  himself  in  which  ten  years  ago  was  almost 
certain  death.  Benares  is  the  center  of  all  the  political 
intrigues  of  India;  but  the  great  mutiny  itself  was 
hatched  there  without  being  heard  of  at  Secrole.  Ex- 
cept that  our  policemen  now  perambulate  the  town, 
change  in  Benares  there  has  been  none.  Were  mis- 
sionaries to  appear  openly  in  its  streets,  their  fate  would 
still  very  possibly  be  the  same  as  that  which  in  this 
city  befell  St.  Thomas. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CASTE. 

ONE  of  the  greatest  difficulties  with  which  the  Brit- 
ish have  to  contend  in  Hindostan  is  how  to  discover 
the  tendencies,  how  to  follow  the  changes,  of  native 
opinion.  Your  Hindoo  is  so  complaisant  a  companion, 
that,  whether  he  is  your  servant  at  threepence  a  day, 
or  the  ruler  of  the  State  in  which  you  dwell,  he  is  per- 
petually striving  to  make  his  opinions  the  reflex  of 
your  own.  You  are  engaged  in  a  continual  struggle 
to  prevent  your  views  from  being  seen,  in  order  that 
you  may  get  at  his :  in  this  you  always  fail ;  a  slight 


CASTE.  179 

hint  is  enough  for  a  Hindoo,  and,  if  he  cannot  find  even 
that  much  of  suggestion  in  your  words,  he  confines 
himself  to  commonplace.  We  should  see  in  this,  not 
so  much  one  of  the  forms  assumed  by  the  cringing 
slavishness  born  of  centuries  of  subjection,  not  so  much 
an  example  of  Oriental  cunning,  as  of  the  polish  of 
Eastern  manners.  Even  in  our  rude  country  it  is 
hardly  courteous,  whatever  your  opinions,  flatly  to  con- 
tradict the  man  with  whom  you  happen  to  be  talking ; 
with  the  Hindoo,  it  is  the  height  of  ill  breeding  so 
much  as  to  differ  from  him.  The  results  of  the  prac- 
tice are  deplorable ;  our  utter  ignorance  of  the  secret 
history  of  the  rebellion  of  1857  is  an  example  of  its 
working,  for  there  must  have  been  a  time,  before  discon- 
tent ripened  into  conspiracy,  when  we  might  have  been 
advised  and  warned.  The  native  newspapers  are  worse 
than  useless  to  us;  accepted  as  exponents  of  Hindoo 
views  by  those  who  know  no  better,  and  founded  mostly 
by  British  capital,  they  are  at  once  incapable  of  direct- 
ing and  of  acting  as  indexes  to  native  opinion,  and  ex- 
press only  the  sentiments  of  half  a  dozen  small  mer- 
chants at  the  presidency  towns,  wTho  give  the  tone  to 
some  two  or  three  papers,  whic'h  are  copied  and  fol- 
lowed by  the  remainder. 

The  result  of  this  difficulty  in  discovering  native 
opinion  is  that  our  officers,  however  careful,  however 
considerate  in  their  bearing  toward  the  natives,  daily 
wound  the  feelings  of  the  people  who  are  under  their 
care  by  acts  which,  though  done  in  a  praiseworthy 
spirit,  appear  to  the  natives  deeds  of  gross  stupidity  or 
of  outrageous  despotism.  It  is  hopeless  to  attempt  to 
conciliate,  it  is  impossible  so  much  as  to  govern  unless 
by  main  force  continually  displayed,  an  Eastern  people 
in  whose  religious  thought  we  are  not  deeply  learned. 

Not  only  are  we  unacquainted  with  the  feelings  of  the 


180  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

people,  but  we  are  lamentably  ignorant  of  the  simplest 
facts  about  their  religions,  their  wealth,  and  their  oc- 
cupations, for  no  census  of  all  India  has  yet  been  taken. 
A  complete  census  had,  indeed,  been  taken,  not  long 
before  my  visit,  in  Central  India,  and  another  in  the 
Northwest  Provinces,  but  none  in  Madras,  Bombay, 
the  Punjaub,  or  Bengal.  The  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  the  officials  who  carried  through  the  arrangements 
for  the  two  that  had  been  taken  were  singularly  great. 
In  the  Central  Provinces,  the  census-papers  had  to  be 
prepared  in  five  languages ;  both  here  arid  in  the  North- 
west, the  purely  scientific  nature  of  the  inquiry  had  to 
be  brought  home  to  the  minds  of  the  people.  In  Cen- 
tral India  the  hill-tribes  believed  that  our  object  in  the 
census  was  to  pave  the  way  for  the  collection  of  the  un- 
married girls  as  companions  for  our  wifeless  soldiers, 
so  all  began  marrying  forthwith.  In  the  Northwest, 
the  natives  took  it  into  their  heads  that  our  object  was 
to  see  how  many  able-bodied  men  would  be  available 
for  a  war  against  Russia,  and  to  collect  a  poll-tax  to 
pay  for  the  expedition.  The  numerous  tribes  that  are 
habitually  guilty  of  infanticide  threw  every  difficulty 
in  the  way ;  Europeans  disliked  the  whole  affair,  on  ac- 
count of  the  insult  offered  to  their  dignity  in  ranking 
them  along  with  natives.  It  must  be  admitted,  indeed, 
that  the  provisions  for  recording  caste  distinctions  gave 
an  odd  shape  to  the  census-papers  left  at  the  houses  at 
Secrole,  in  which  European  officers  were  asked  to  state 
their  "  caste  or  tribe."  The  census  of  the  Central  Prov- 
inces was  imperfect  enough,  but  that  of  the  North- 
west was  the  second  that  had  been  taken  there,  and 
showed  signs  of  scientific  arrangement  and  great 
care. 

The  Northwest  Provinces  include  the  great  towns 
of  Benares,  Agra,  and  Allahabad,  and  the  census  fell 


CASTE.  181 

into  my  hands  at  Benares  itself,  at  the  Sanscrit  Col- 
lege. It  was  a  strange  production,  and  seemed  to  have 
brought  together  a  mass  of  information  respecting 
castes  and  creeds  which  was  new  even  to  those  who 
had  lived  long  in  the  Northwest  Provinces.  All  call- 
ings in  India  being  hereditary,  there  were  entries  re- 
cording the  presence  in  certain  towns  of  "  hereditary 
clerks  who  pray  to  their  inkhorns,"  "  hereditary  beg- 
gars," " hereditary  planters  of  slips  or  cuttings,"  "he- 
reditary grave-diggers,"  "  hereditary  hermits,"  and 
"hereditary  hangmen,"  for  in  India  a  hangmanship 
descends  with  as  much  regularity  as  a  crown.  In  the 
single  district  of  the  Dehra  Valley,  there  are  1500 
" hereditary  tomtom  men" — drummers  at  the  festivals; 
234  Brahmins  of  Bijnour  returned  themselves  as  having 
for  profession  "  the  receipt  of  presents  to  avert  the  in- 
fluence of  evil  stars."  In  Bijnour,  there  are  also  fifteen 
people  of  a  caste  which  professes  "the  pleasing  of  peo- 
ple by  assuming  disguises,"  while  at  Benares  there  is 
a  whole  caste — the  Bh&ts — whose  hereditary  occupa- 
tion is  to  "satirize  the  enemies  of  the  rich,  and  to 
praise  their  friends."  In  the  Northwest  Provinces, 
there  are  572  distinct  castes  in  all. 

The  accounts  which  some  castes  gave  of  their  origin 
read  strangely  in  a  solemn  governmental  document: 
the  members  of  one  caste  described  themselves  as 
"descended  from  Maicasur,  a  demon;"  but  some  of 
the  records  are  less  legendary  and  more  historic.  One 
caste  in  the  Dehra  Valley  sent  in  a  note  that  they 
came  in  1000  A.D.  from  the  Deccan;  another,  that 
they  emigrated  from  Arabia  500  years  ago.  The  Gour 
Brahmins  claim  to  have  been  in  the  district  of  Moozuf- 
fernuggur  for  5000  years. 

Under  the  title  of  "  occupations,"  the  heads  of  fami- 
lies alone  were  given,  and  not  the  number  of  those 

VOL.  II.  16 


182  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

dependent  on  them,  whence  it  comes  that  in  the  whole 
province  only  "  11,000  tomtom  players  "  were  set  down. 
The  habits  and  tastes  of  the  people  are  easily  seen 
in  the  entries:  "3600  firework  manufacturers,"  "45 
makers  of  crowns  for  idols,"  "4353  gold-bangle  mak- 
ers," "  29,136  glass-bangle  makers,"  "1123  astrolo- 
gers." There  are  also  145  "ear -cleaners,"  besides 
"kite -makers,"  "ear -piercers,"  "pedigree -makers," 
"makers  of  caste-marks,"  "cow-dung  sellers,"  and 
"  hereditary  painters  of  horses  with  spots."  There  was 
no  backwardness  in  the  followers  of  maligned  pur- 
suits: 974  people  in  Allahabad  described  themselves 
as  "low  blackguards,"  35  as  "men  who  beg  with 
threats  of  violence,"  25  as  "  hereditary  robbers," 
479,015  as  "beggars,"  29  as  " howlers  at  funerals," 
226  as  " flatterers  for  gain ;"  "vagabonds,"  "charm- 
ers," "informers"  were  all  set  down,  and  1100  re- 
turned themselves  as  "hereditary  buffoons,"  while 
2000  styled  themselves  "conjurers,"  4000  "acrobats," 
and  6372  "poets."  In  one  district  alone,  there  were 
777  "  soothsayers  and  astrologers"  by  profession. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that,  although  there  are  in  the 
Northwest  Provinces  half  a  million  of  beggars  in  a 
population  of  thirty  millions,  they  seem  never  to  beg 
of  Europeans — at  least,  I  was  not  once  asked  for  alms 
daring  my  stay  in  India.  If  the  smallest  service  be 
performed,  there  comes  a  howl  of  "O  Bauks-heece!" 
from  all  quarters,  but  at  other  times  natives  seem 
afraid  to  beg  of  Englishmen. 

The  number  of  fakeers,  soothsayers,  charmers,  and 
other  "religious"  vagabonds  is  enormous,  but  the 
dense  ignorance  of  the  people  renders  them  a  prey  to 
witchcraft,  evil-eye,  devil-influence,  and  all  such  folly. 
In  Central  India,  there  are  whole  districts  which  are 
looked  upon  as  witch-tracts  or  haunted  places,  and 


CASTE.  183 

which  are  never  approached  by  man,  but  set  aside  as 
homes  for  devils.  A  gentleman  who  was  lately  en- 
gaged there  on  the  railroad  survey  found  that  night 
after  night  his  men  were  frightened  out  of  their  wits 
by  "  fire-fiends,"  or  blazing  demons.  He  insisted  that 
they  should  take  him  to  the  spot  where  these  strange 
sights  were  seen,  and  to  his  amazement  he,  too,  saw 
the  fire-devil;  at  least,  he  saw  a  blaze  of  light  moving 
slowly  through  the  jungle.  Gathering  himself  up  for 
a  chase,  he  rushed  at  the  devil  with  a  club,  when  the 
light  suddenly  disappeared,  and  instantly  shone  out 
from  another  spot,  a  hundred  yards  from  the  former 
place.  Seeing  that  there  was  some  trickery  at  work, 
he  hid  himself,  and  after  some  hours  caught  his  devil, 
who,  to  escape  from  a  sound  drubbing,  gave  an  expla- 
nation of  the  whole  affair.  The  man  said  that  the 
natives  of  the  surveyor's  party  had  stolen  his  mangoes 
for  several  nights,  but  that  at  last  he  had  hit  on  a 
plan  for  frightening  them  away.  He  and  his  sons 
went  out  at  dark  with  pots  of  blazing  oil  upon  their 
heads,  and,  when  approached  by  thieves,  the  leading 
one  put  a  cover  on  his  pot,  and  became  invisible,  while 
the  second  uncovered  his.  The  surveying  party  got 
the  drubbing,  and  the  devil  escaped  scot-free;  but  the 
surveyor,  with  short-sighted  wisdom,  told  his  men, 
who  had  not  seen  him  catch  the  fire-bearer,  that  he 
had  had  the  honor  of  an  interview  with  the  devil 
himself,  who  had  joyfully  informed  him  of  the  thefts 
committed  by  the  men.  The  surveyor  did  not  admit 
that  he  was  from  this  time  forward  worshiped  by  his 
party,  but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  such  was  the  case. 
One  of  the  hill-tribes  of  Madras  worships  Colonel 
Palmer,  a  British  officer  who  died  some  seventy  years 
ago,  just  as  Drake  was  worshiped  in  America,  and 
Captain  Cook  in  Hawaii.  It  was  one  of  these  tribes 


184  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

that  invented  the  well-known  worshiping  machine,  or 
"  pray  ing- wheel." 

The  hill-tribes  are  less  refined,  but  hardly  more 
ignorant  in  their  fanaticism  than  are  the  Hindoos.  At 
Bombay,  upon  the  beach  where  the  dead  are  buried, 
or  rather  tossed  to  the  wild  beasts,  I  saw  a  filthy  and 
holy  Hindoo  saint,  whose  claim  to  veneration  consists 
in  his  having  spent  the  whole  of  the  days  and  portions 
of  the  nights  for  twenty  years  in  a  stone  box  in  which 
he  can  neither  stand,  nor  lie,  nor  sit,  nor  sleep.  These 
saintly  fakeers  have  still  much  influence  with  the  Hin- 
doo mass,  but  in  old  times  their  power  and  their  inso- 
lence were  alike  unbounded.  Agra  itself  was  founded 
to  please  one  of  them.  The  great  Emperor  Akbar, 
who,  although  a  lax  Mohammedan,  was  in  no  sense  a 
Hindoo,  kept  nevertheless  a  Hindoo  saint  for  political 
purposes,  and  gave  him  the  foremost  position  in  his 
train.  "When  the  emperor  was  beginning  to  fortify 
Futtehpore  Sikri,  where  he  lived,  the  saint  sent  for 
him,  and  said  that  the  work  must  be  stopped,  as  the 
noise  disturbed  him  at  his  prayers.  The  emperor 
offered  him  new  rooms  away  from  the  site  of  the 
proposed  walls,  but  the  saint  replied  that,  whether 
Akbar  went  on  with  his  works  or  no,  he  should  leave 
Futtehpore.  To  pacify  him,  Akbar  founded  Agra,  and 
dismantled  Futtehpore  Sikri. 

From  the  census  it  appears  that  there  are,  in  the 
Northwest  Provinces,  no  less  than  twenty-two  news- 
papers under  government  inspection,  of  which  five  are 
published  at  Agra.  The  circulation  of  these  papers 
is  extremely  small,  and  as  the  government  itself  takes 
3500  of  the  12,000  copies  which  they  issue,  its  hold 
over  them,  without  exertion  of  force,  is  great.  Of  the 
other  8500,  8000  go  to  native  and  500  to  European 
subscribers.  All  the  native  papers  are  skillful  at  cater- 


CASTE.  185 

ing  for  their  double  public,  but  those  which  are  printed 
half  in  a  native  tongue  and  half  in  English  stand  in 
the  first  rank  for  unscrupulousness.  One  of  these 
papers  gave,  while  I  was  in  India,  some  French  speech 
in  abuse  of  the  English.  This  was  headed  on  the 
English  side,  "Interesting  Account  of  the  English,"  but 
on  the  native  side,  "Excellent  Account  of  the  English." 
The  "  English  correspondence"  and  English  news  of 
these  native  papers  are  so  absurdly  concocted  by  the 
editors  out  of  their  own  brains  that  it  is  a  question 
whether  it  would  not  be  advisable  to  send  them  weekly 
a  column  of  European  news,  and  even  to  withhold 
government  patronage  from  them  unless  they  gave  it 
room,  leaving  them  to  qualify  and  explain  the  facts  as 
best  they  could.  Their  favorite  statements  are  that 
Russia  is  going  to  invade  India  forthwith,  that  the 
Queen  has  become  a  Catholic  or  a  Mohammedan,  and 
that  the  whole  population  of  India  is  to  be  converted 
to  Christianity  by  force.  The  external  appearance  of 
the  native  papers  is  sometimes  as  comical  as  their 
matter.  The  Umritsur  Commercial  Advertiser,  of  which 
nothing  is  English  but  the  title,  gives,  for  instance, 
the  time-tables  of  the  Punjaub  Railway  on  its  back 
sheet.  The  page,  which  is  a  mere  maze  of  dots  and 
crooked  lines,  has  at  the  top  a  cut  of  a  railwaj^  train, 
in  which  guards  apparently  cocked-hatted,  but  proba- 
bly meant  to  be  wearing  pith  helmets,  are  represented 
sitting  on  the  top  of  each  carriage,  with  their  legs  dan- 
gling down  in  front  of  the  windows. 

Neither  Christianity  nor  native  reformed  religions 
make  much  show  in  the  Northwestern  census.  The 
Christians  are  strongest  in  the  South  of  India,  the 
Hindoo  reformers  in  the  Punjaub.  The  Sikhs  them- 
selves, and  the  Kookhas,  Nirunkarees,  Goolab  Dasseas, 
Naukeeka-punth,  and  many  other  Punjaubee  sects,  all 

16* 


186  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

show  more  or  less  hostility  to  caste;  but  in  the  North- 
west Provinces  caste  distinctions  nourish,  although  in 
reality  they  have  no  doubt  lost  strength.  The  high- 
caste  men  are  beginning  to  find  their  caste  a  drawback 
to  their  success  in  life,  and  are  given  to  concealing  it. 
Just  as  with  ourselves  kings  go  incognito  when  they 
travel  for  pleasure,  so  the  Bengal  sepoy  hides  his  Brah- 
rniuical  string  under  his  cloth,  in  order  that  he  may 
be  sent  on  foreign  service  without  its  being  known 
that  by  crossing  the  seas  he  will  lose  caste. 

Judging  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  native 
press  on  the  doings  of  the  Maharajahs  of  Bombay, 
and  on  the  licentiousness  of  the  Koolin  Brahmins, 
many  of  our  civilians  have  come  to  think  that  Hindoo- 
ism  in  its  present  shape  has  lost  the  support  of  a  large 
number  of  the  more  intelligent  Hindoos ;  but  there  is 
little  reason  to  believe  that  this  is  the  case.  In  Cal- 
cutta, the  Church  of  Hindoo  Deists  is  gaining  ground, 
and  one  of  their  leaders  is  said  to  have  met  with  some 
successes  during  a  recent  expedition  to  the  Northwest, 
but  of  this  there  is  no  proof.  The  little  regard  that 
many  high-caste  natives  show  for  caste  except  as  a 
matter  of  talk  merely  means  that  caste  is  less  an  affair 
of  religion  than  of  custom,  but  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
custom  does  not  show  that  its  force  is  slight :  on  the 
contrary,  custom  is  the  lord  of  India. 

The  success  of  Mohammedanism  in  India  should  show 
that  caste  has  never  been  strong  except  so  far  as  caste 
is  custom.  It  is  true  that  the  peasants  in  Orissa  starved 
by  the  side  of  the  sacred  cows,  but  this  was  custom 
too :  any  one  man  killing  the  cow  would  have  been  at 
once  killed  by  his  also  starving  neighbors  for  breaking 
custom;  but  once  change  the  custom  by  force,  and 
there  is  no  tendency  to  return  to  the  former  state  of 
things.  The  Portuguese  and  the  Mohammedans  alike 


CASTE.  187 

made  converts  by  compulsion,  yet  when  the  pressure 
was  removed  there  was  no  return  to  the  earlier  faith. 
Of  the  nature  of  caste  we  had  an  excellent  example  in 
the  behavior  of  the  troopers  of  a  Bengal  cavalry  regi- 
ment three  weeks  before  the  outbreak  of  the  mutiny 
of  1857,  when  they  said  that  for  their  part  they  knew 
that  their  cartridges  were  not  greased  with  the  fat  of 
cows,  but  that,  as  they  looked  as  though  they  were,  it 
came  to  the  same  thing,  for  they  should  lose  caste  if 
their  friends  saw  them  touch  the  cartridges  in  question. 

It  was  the  cry  of  infringement  of  custom  that  was 
raised  against  us  by  the  mutineers:  "They  aim  at  sub- 
verting our  institutions;  they  have  put  down  the  suttee 
of  the  Brahmins,  the  infanticide  of  the  Marattas,  caste 
and  adoption  are  despised ;  they  aim  at  destroying  all 
our  religious  customs,"  was  the  most  powerful  cry  that 
could  be  raised.  It  is  one  against  which  we  shall  never 
be  wholly  safe;  but  it  is  the  custom  and  not  the  reli- 
gion which  is  the  people's  especial  care. 

There  is  one  point  in  which  caste  forms  a  singular 
difficulty  in  our  way,  which  has  not  yet  been  brought 
sufficiently  home  to  us.  The  comparatively  fair  treat- 
ment which  is  now  extended  to  the  low-caste  and  no- 
caste  men  is  itself  an  insult  to  the  high-caste  nobility; 
and  while  the  no-caste  men  care  little  how  we  treat 
them,  provided  we  pay  them  well,  and  the  bunnya,  or 
shop-keeping  class,  encouraged  by  the  improvement, 
cry  out  loudly  that  the  government  wrongs  them  in 
not  treating  them  as  Europeans,  the  high-caste  men 
are  equally  disgusted  with  our  good  treatment  both  of 
middle-class  and  inferior  Hindoos.  These  things  are 
stumbling-blocks  in  our  way,  chiefly  because  no  amount 
of  acquaintance  with  the  various  phases  of  caste  feeling 
is  sufficient  to  bring  home  its  importance  to  English- 
men. The  Indian  is  essentially  the  caste  man,  the 


188  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Saxon  as  characteristically  the  no-caste  man,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  produce  a  mutual  understanding.  Just  as 
in  England  the  people  are  too  democratic  for  the  gov- 
ernment, in  India  the  government  is  too  democratic 
for  the  people. 

Although  caste  has  hitherto  been  but  little  shaken, 
there  are  forces  at  work  which  must  in  time  produce 
the  most  grave  results.  The  return  to  their,  homes  of 
natives  who  have  emigrated  and  worked  at  sugar- 
planting  in  Mauritius  and  coffee-growing  in  Ceylon, 
mixing  with  negroes  and  with  Europeans,  will  gradu- 
ally aid  in  the  subversion  of  caste  distinctions,  and  the 
Parsees  will  give  their  help  toward  the  creation  of  a 
healthier  feeling.  The  young  men  of  the  merchant- 
class — who  are  all  pure  deists — set.  an  example  of  doing 
away  with  caste  distinctions  which  will  gradually  affect 
the  whole  population  of  the  towns ;  railways  will  act 
upon  the  laborers  and  agriculturists ;  a  closer  inter- 
course with  Europe  will  possibly  go  hand  in  hand  with 
universal  instruction  in  the  English  tongue,  and  the 
indirect  results  of  Christian  teaching  will  continue  to 
be,  as  they  have  been,  great. 

The  positive  results  of  missionary  work  in  India 
have  hitherto  been  small.  Taking  the  census  as  a 
guide,  in  the  district  of  Mooradabad  we  find  but  107 
Christians  in  1,100,000  people;  in  Budaon,  64  "Chris- 
tians, Europeans,  and  Eurasians"  (half-castes)  out  of 
900,000  people;  in  Bareilly,  137  native  Christians 
in  a  million  and  a  half  of  people;  in  Shajehanpoor, 
98  in  a  million  people;  in  Turrai,  none  in  a  million 
people;  in  Etah,  no  native  Christians,  and  only  twenty 
Europeans  to  614,000  people;  in  the  Banda  dis- 
trict, thirteen  native  Christians  out  of  three-quarters 
of  a  million  of  people ;  in  Goruckpoor,  100  native 
Christians  out  of  three  and  a  half  millions  of  people. 


CASTE.  189 

Not  to  multiply  instances,  this  proportion  is  preserved 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  districts,  and  the  native 
Christians  in  the  Northwest  are  proved  to  form  but  an 
insignificant  fraction  of  the  population. 

The  number  of  native  Christians  in  India  is  ex- 
tremely small.  Twenty-three  societies,  having  three 
hundred  Protestant  missionary  stations,  more  than 
three  hundred  native  missionary  churches,  and  five 
hundred  European  preachers,  costing  with  their  assist- 
ants two  hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year,  profess  to 
show  only  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  converts,  of 
whom  one-seventh  are  communicants.  The  majority 
of  the  converts  who  are  not  communicants  are  con- 
verts only  upon  paper,  and  it  may  be  said  that  of  real 
native  non-Catholic  Christians  there  are  not  in  India 
more  than  40,000,  of  whom  half  are  to  be  found 
among  the  devil-worshipers  of  Madras.  The  so-called 
"aboriginal"  hill-tribes,  having  no  elaborate  religious 
system  of  their  own,  are  not  tied  down  to  the  creed  of 
their  birth  in  the  same  way  as  are  Mohammedans  and 
Hindoos,  among  whom  our  missionaries  make  no  way 
whatever.  The  native  Protestant's  position  is  a  fear- 
ful one,  except  in  such  a  city  as  Madras,  for  he  wholly 
loses  caste,  and  becomes  an  outlaw  from  his  people. 
The  native  Catholic  continues  to  be  a  caste  man,  and 
sometimes  an  idol-worshiper,  and  the  priests  have 
made  a  million  converts  in  Southern  India. 

Besides  revealing  the  fewness  of  the  native  Chris- 
tians, the  Northwestern  census  has  shown  us  plainly 
the  weakness  of  the  Europeans.  In  the  district  of 
Mooradabad,  1,100,000  people  are  ruled  by  thirty- 
eight  Europeans.  In  many  places,  two  Europeans 
watch  over  200,000  people.  The  Eurasians  are  about 
as  numerous  as  the  Europeans,  to  which  class  they 
may  for  some  purposes  be  regarded  as  belonging,  for 


190  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

the  natives  reject  their  society,  and  refuse  them  a  place 
in  every  caste.  The  Eurasians  are  a  much-despised 
race,  the  butt  of  every  Indian  story,  but  as  a  commu- 
nity they  are  not  to  be  ranked  high.  That  they  should 
be  ill  educated,  vain,  and  cringing,  is  perhaps  only  what 
we  might  expect  of  persons  placed  in  their  difficult 
position ;  nevertheless,  that  they  are  so  tends  to  lessen, 
in  spite  of  our  better  feelings,  the  pity  that  we  should 
otherwise  extend  toward  them. 

The  census  had  not  only  its  revelations,  but  its  re- 
sults. One  effect  of  the  census-taking  is  to  check  the 
practice  of  infanticide,  by  pointing  out  to  the  notice  of 
our  officers  the  castes  and  the  districts  in  which  it 
exists.  The  deaths  of  three  or  four  hundred  children 
are  credited  to  the  wolves  in  the  Umritsur  district  of 
the  Punjaub  alone,  but  it  is  remarked  that  the  "wolves" 
pick  out  the  female  infants.  The  great  disproportion 
of  the  sexes  is  itself  partly  to  be  explained  as  the  re- 
sult of  infanticide. 

One  weighty  drawback  to  our  influence  upon  Hindoo 
morals,  is  that  in  the  case  of  many  abuses  we  legislate 
without  effect,  our  laws  being  evaded  where  they  are 
outwardly  obeyed.  The  practice  of  infanticide  exists 
in  all  parts  of  India,  but  especially  in  Rajpootana,  and 
the  girls  are  killed  chiefly  in  order  to  save  the  cost  of 
marrying  them — or,  rather,  of  buying  husbands  for 
them.  Now  we  have  "  suppressed"  infanticide — which 
means  that  children  are  smothered  or  starved,  instead 
of  being  exposed.  It  is  no  easy  task  to  bring  about 
reforms  in  the  customs  of  the  people  of  India. 

The  many  improvements  in  the  moral  condition  of 
the  people  which  the  census  chronicles  are  steps  in  a 
great  march.  Those  who  have  known  India  long  are 
aware  that  a  remarkable  change  has  come  over  the 
country  in  the  last  few  years.  Small  as  have  been  the 


MOHAMMEDAN   CITIES.  191 

positive  visible  results  of  Christian  teaching,  the  indi- 
rect effects  have  been  enormous.  Among  the  Sikhs 
and  Marattas,  a  spirit  of  reflection,  of  earnest  thought, 
unusual  in  natives,  has  been  aroused ;  in  Bengal  it  has 
taken  the  form  of  pure  deism,  but  then  Bengal  is  not 
India.  The  spirit  rather  than  the  doctrinal  teaching 
of  Christianity  has  been  imbibed:  a  love  of  truth 
appeals  more  to  the  feelings  of  the  upright  natives 
.than  do  the  whole  of  the  nine-aud- thirty  Articles. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  natives  look  to  deeds,  not 
words ;  the  example  of  a  Frere  is  worth  the  teaching 
of  a  hundred  missionaries,  painstaking  and  earnest 
though  they  be. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MOHAMMEDAN    CITIES. 

THROUGH  Mirzapore,  Allahabad,  and  Futtehpore,  I 
passed  on  to  Cawnpore,  spending  but  little  time  at 
Allahabad;  for  though  the  city  is  strategically  im- 
portant, there  is  in  it  but  little  to  be  seen.  Like  all 
spots  of  the  confluence  of  rivers,  Allahabad  is  sacred 
with  the  Hindoos,  for  it  stands,  they  say,  at  the  meeting- 
point  of  no  less  than  three  great  streams — the  Ganges, 
the  Jumna,  and-  a  river  of  the  spirit-land.  To  us  poor 
pagans  the  third  stream  is  invisible;  not  so  to  the 
faithful.  Catching  a  glimpse  of  Marochetti's  statue  at 
the  Cawnpore  well,  as  I  hurried  through  that  city,  I 
diverged  from  the  East  Indian  Railway,  and  took 
dawk-carriage  to  Lucknow. 

As  compared  with  other  Indian  cities,  the  capital  of 


192  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Oude  is  a  town  to  be  seen  in  driving  rather  than  in 
walking ;  the  general  effects  are  superior  in  charm  and 
beauty  to  the  details,  and  the  vast  size  of  the  city 
makes  mere  sight-seeing  a  work  of  difficulty.  More 
populous  before  1857  than  either  Calcutta  or  Bombay, 
it  is  still  twice  as  large  as  Liverpool.  Not  only,  how- 
ever, is  Lucknow  the  most  perfect  of  the  modern  or 
Italianized  Oriental  towns,  but  there  are  in  it  several 
buildings  that  have  each  the  charm  of  an  architecture 
special  to  itself.  Of  these,  the  Martiniere  is  the  most 
singular,  and  it  looks  like  what  it  is — the  freak  of  a 
wealthy  madman.  Its  builder  was  General  Martine, 
a  Frenchman  in  the  service  of  the  Kings  of  Oude. 
Not  far  behind  the  Martiniere  is  the  Dilkousha — a 
fantastic  specimen  of  an  Oriental  hunting-lodge.  The 
ordinary  show-building  of  the  place,  the  Kaiser-Bagh, 
or  Palace  of  the  Kings  of  Oude,  is  a  paltry  place  enough, 
but  there  is  a  certain  grandeur  in  the  view  of  the  great 
Imaumbara  and  the  Hooseinabad  from  a  point  whence 
the  two  piles  form  to  the  eye  but  one.  The  great 
Imaumbara  suffered  terribly  in  1858  from  the  wanton 
destruction  which  our  troops  committed  everywhere 
during  the  war  of  the  mutiny.  Had  they  confined 
themselves  to  outrages  such  as  these,  however,  but 
little  could  have  been  said  against  the  conduct  of  the 
war.  There  is  too  much  fear  that  the  English,  unless 
held  in  check,  exhibit  a  singularly  strong  disposition  to- 
ward cruelty,  wherever  they  have  a  wreak  enemy  to  meet. 
The  stories  of  the  Indian  mutiny  and  of  the 
Jamaica  riot  are  but  two  out  of  many — two  that 
we  happen  to  have  heard;  but  the  Persian  war  in 
1857  and  the  last  of  the  Chinese  campaigns  are  not 
without  their  records  of  deliberate  barbarity  and 
wrong.  From  the  first  officer  of  one  of  the  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  steamers,  which  was  employed  in  carry- 


MOHAMMEDAN  CITIES.  193 

ing  troops  up  the  Euphrates  during  the  Persian  war, 
I  heard  a  story  that  is  the  type  of  many  such.  A 
Persian  drummer-boy  of  about  ten  years  old  was  seen 
bathing  from  the  bank  one  morning  by  the  officers  on 
deck.  Bets  were  made  as  to  the  chance  of  hitting 
him  with  an  Enfield  rifle,  and  one  of  the  betters  killed 
him  at  the  first  shot. 

It  is  not  only  in  war-time  that  our  cruelty  comes 
out;  it  is  often  seen  in  trifles  during  peace.  Even 
a  traveler,  indeed,  becomes  so  soon  used  to  see  the 
natives  wronged  in  every  way  by  people  of  quiet  man- 
ner and  apparent  kindness  of  disposition,  that  he  ceases 
to  record  the  cases.  In  Madras  roads,  for  instance,  I 
saw  a  fruit-seller  hand  up  some  limes  to  a  lower-deck 
port,  just  as  we  were  weighing  anchor.  Three  Anglo- 
Indians  (men  who  had  been  out  before)  asked  in  chorus, 
"How  much?"  "One  quarter  rupee."  uToomuch." 
And,  without  more  ado,  paying  nothing,  they  pelted 
the  man  with  his  own  limes,  of  which  he  lost  more 
than  half.  In  Ceylon,  near  Bentotte  rest-house,  a 
native  child  offered  a  handsome  cowrie  (of  a  kind 
worth  in  Australia  about  five  shillings,  and  certainly 
worth  something  in  Ceylon)  to  the  child  of  a  Mauritius 
coffee-planter  who  was  traveling  with  us  to  Columbo, 
himself  an  old  Indian  officer.  The  white  child  took  it, 
and  would  not  give  it  up.  The  native  child  cried  for 
money,  or  to  have  his  shell  back,  but  the  mother  of  the 
white  child  exclaimed,  "You  be  hanged;  it's  worth 
nothing;"  and  off  came  the  shell  with  us  in  the  dawk. 
Such  are  the  small  but  galling  wrongs  inflicted  daily 
upon  the  Indian  natives.  It  was  a  maxim  of  the 
Portuguese  Jesuits  that  men  who  live  long  among 
Asiatics  seldom  fail  to  learn  their  vices;  but  our  older 
civilians  treat  the  natives  with  strict  justice,  and  Anglo- 
Indian  ladies  who  have  been  reared  in  the  country  are 

VOL.  II.  17 


194  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

generally  kind  to  their  own  servants,  if  somewhat  harsh 
toward  other  natives.  It  is  those  who  have  been  in  the 
country  from  five  to  ten  years,  and  especially  soldiers, 
who  treat  the  natives  badly.  Such  men  I  have  heard 
exclaim  that  the  new  penal  code  has  revolutionized  the 
country.  "Formerly,"  they  say,  "you  used  to  send  a 
man  to  a  police-officer  or  a  magistrate  with  a  note: — 

'My  dear .   Please  give  the  bearer  twenty  lashes.' 

But  now  the  magistrates  are  afraid  to  act,  and  your 
servant  can  have  you  fined  for  beating  him."  In  spite 
of  the  lamentations  of  Anglo-Indians  over  the  good  old 
days,  I  noticed  in  all  the  hotels  in  India  the  significant 
notice,  "Gentlemen  are  earnestly  requested  not  to 
strike  the  servants." 

The  jokes  of  a  people  against  themselves  are  not 
worth  much,  but  may  be  taken  in  aid  of  other  evi- 
dence. The  two  favorite  Anglo-Indian  stories  are  that 
of  the  native  who,  being  asked  his  religion,  said,  "Me 
Christian — me  get  drunk  like  massa;"  and  that  of  the 
young  officer  who,  learning  Hindostanee  in  1858,  had 
the  difference  between  the  negative  "ne"  and  the  par- 
ticle "ne"  explained  to  him  by  the  moonshee,  when 
he  exclaimed:  "Dear  me!  I  hanged  lots  of  natives 
last  year  for  admitting  that  they  had  not  been  in  their 
villages  for  months.  I  suppose  they  meant  to  say  that 
they  had  not  left  their  villages  for  months."  It  is  cer- 
tain that  in  the  suppression  of  the  mutiny  hundreds  of 
natives  were  hanged  by  Queen's  officers  who,  unable 
to  speak  a  word  of  any  native  language,  could  neither 
understand  evidence  nor  defense. 

It  is  in  India,  when  listening  to  a  mess-table  con- 
versation on  the  subject  of  looting,  that  we  begin 
to  remember  our  descent  from  Scandinavian  sea-king 
robbers.  Centuries  of  education  have  not  purified  the 
blood:  our  men  in  India  can  hardly  set  eyes  upon  a 


MOHAMMEDAN  CITIES.  195 

native  prince  or  a  Hindoo  palace  before  they  cry, 
"What  a  place  to  break  up!"  "What  a  fellow  to 
loot!"  When  I  said  to  an  officer  who  had  been  sta- 
tioned at  Secrole  in  the  early  days  of  the  mutiny,  "I 
suppose  you  were  afraid  that  the  Benares  people 
would  have  attacked  you,"  his  answer  was,  "Well, 
for  my  part,  I  rather  hoped  they  would,  because  then 
we  should  have  thrashed  them,  and  looted  the  city. 
It  hadn't  been  looted  for  two  hundred  years." 

Those  who  doubt  that  Indian  military  service  makes 
soldiers  careless  of  men's  lives,,  reckless  as  to  the  rights 
of  property,  and  disregardful  of  human  dignity,  can 
hardly  remember  the  letters  which  reached  home  in 
1857,  in  which  an  officer  in  high  command  during  the 
march  upon  Cawnpore  reported,  "Good  bag  to-day; 

polished  off  rebels,"  it  being  borne  in  mind 

that  the  "rebels"  thus  hanged  or  blown  from  guns 
were  not  taken  in  arms,  but  villagers  apprehended 
"on  suspicion."  During  this  march,  atrocities  were 
committed  in  the  burning  of  villages,  and  massacre  of 
innocent  inhabitants,  at  which  Mohammed  Togluk 
himself  would  have  stood  ashamed,  and  it  would  be  to 
contradict  all  history  to  assert  that  a  succession  of 
such  deeds  would  not  prove  fatal  to  our  liberties  at 
home. 

The  European  officers  of  native  regiments,  and  many 
officers  formerly  in  the  Company's  service,  habitually 
show  great  kindness  to  the  natives,  but  it  is  the 
benevolent  kindness  of  the  master  for  a  favorite  slave, 
of  the  superior  for  men  immeasurably  beneath  him ; 
there  is  little  of  the  feeling  which  a  common  citizen- 
ship should  bestow,  little  of  that  equality  of  man  and 
man  which  Christianity  would  seem  to  teach,  and 
which  our  Indian  government  has  for  some  years 
favored. 


196  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

At  Lucknow,  I  saw  the  Residency,  and  at  Cawn- 
pore,  on  my  return  to  the  East  Indian  Railway,  the 
intrenchments  which  were,  each  of  them,  the  scene  in 
1857  of  those  defenses  against  the  mutineers  generally 
styled  "glorious"  or  "heroic,"  though  made  by  men 
fighting  with  ropes  about  their  necks.  The  successful 
defenses  of  the  fort  at  Arrah  and  of  the  Lucknow 
Residency  were  rather  testimonies  to  the  wonderful 
fighting  powers  of  the  English  than  to  their  courage, 
— for  cowards  would  fight  when  the  alternative  was, 
fight  or  die.  As  far  as  Oude  was  concerned,  the  "re- 
bellion" of  1857  seems  to  have  been  rather  a  war  than 
a  mutiny ;  but  the  habits  of  the  native  princes  would 
probably  have  led  them  to  have  acted  as  treacherously 
at  Lucknow  in  the  case  of  a  surrender  as  did  the  JSTana 
at  Cawnpore,  and  our  officers  wisely  determined  that 
in  no  event  would  they  treat  for  terms.  What  is  to  be 
regretted  is  that  we  as  conquerors  should  have  shown 
the  Oude  insurgents  no  more  mercy  than  they  would 
have  shown  to  us,  and  that  we  should  have  made  use 
of  the  pretext  that  the  rising  was  a  mere  mutiny  of 
our  native  troops,  as  an  excuse  for  hanging  in  cold 
blood  the  agriculturists  of  Oude.  Whatever  the  du- 
plicity of  their  rulers,  whatever  the  provocation  to 
annexation  may  have  been,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  revolution  in  the  land-laws  set  on  foot  by  us 
resulted  in  the  offer  of  a  career  as  native  policemen 
or  railway  ticket-clerks  to  men  whose  ancestors  were 
warriors  and  knights  when  ours  wore  woad;  and  we 
are  responsible  before  mankind  for  having  treated  as 
flagrant  treason  and  mutiny  a  legitimate  war  on  the 
part  of  the  nobility  of  Oude.  In  the  official  papers  of 
the  government  of  the  Northwest  Provinces,  the  so- 
called  "mutiny"  is  styled  more  properly  "a  grievous 
civil  war." 


MOHAMMEDAN  CITIES.  197 

There  is  much  reason  to  fear,  not  that  the  mutiny 
will  be  too  long  remembered,  but  that  it  will  be  too 
soon  forgotten.  Ten  years  ago,  Monghyr  was  an  ash- 
heap,  Cawnpore  a  name  of  horror,  Delhi  a  stronghold 
of  armed  rebels,  yet  now  we  can  travel  without  change 
of  cars  through  peaceful  and  prosperous  Monghyr  and 
Cawnpore — a  thousand  and  twenty  miles — in  forty 
hours,  and  find  at  the  end  of  our  journey  that  shaded 
boulevards  have  already  taken  the  place  of  the  walls 
of  Delhi. 

Quitting  the  main  line  of  the  East  Indian  Railway  at 
Toondla  Junction,  I  passed  over  a  newly-made  branch 
road  to  Agra.  The  line  was  but  lately  opened,  and 
birds  without  number  sat  upon  the  telegraph-posts,  and 
were  seemingly  too  astonished  to  fly  away  from  the 
train,  while,  on  the  open  barrens,  herds  of  Indian 
antelopes  grazed  fearlessly,  and  took  no  notice  of  us 
when  we  passed. 

Long  before  we  entered  Akbarabad,  as  the  city 
should  be  called,  by  the  great  new  bridge  across  the 
Jumna,  I  had  sighted  in  the  far  distance  the  majestic, 
shining  dome  of  the  famed  Taj  Mahal ;  but  when 
arrived  within  the  city,  I  first  visited  the  citadel  and 
ramparts.  The  fort  and  palace  of  Akbar  are  the 
Moslem  creed  in  stone.  Without — turned  toward  the 
unbeliever  and  the  foe — the  far-famed  triple  walls, 
frowning  one  above  the  other  with  the  frown  that  a 
hill-fanatic  wears  before  he  strikes  the  infidel ;  within 
is  the  secure  paradise  of  the  believing  " Emperor  of 
the  world" — delicious  fountains  pouring  into  basins  of 
the  whitest  marble,  beds  of  rose  and  myrtle,  balconies 
and  pavilions ;  part  of  the  zenana,  or  women's  wing, 
overhanging  the  river,  and  commanding  the  distant 
snow-dome  of  the  Taj.  Within,  too,  the  "  Motee  Mus- 
jid" — "Pearl  of  Mosques"  in  fact  as  well  as  name — a 

n* 


198  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

marble-cloistered  court,  to  which  an  angel  architect 
could  not  add  a  stone,  nor  snatch  one  from  it,  without 
spoiling  all.  These  for  believers ;  for  non-believers 
the  grim  old  Saracenic  "Hall  of  the  Seat  of  Judgment." 
The  palace,  except  the  mosque,  which  is  purity  itself, 
IB  overlaid  with  a  crust  of  gems.  There  is  one  famed 
chamber — a  woman's  bath-house — the  roof  and  sides 
of  which  are  covered  with  tiny  silver-mounted  mirrors, 
placed  at  such  angles  as  to  reflect  to  infinity  the  figures 
of  those  who  stand  within  the  bath ;  and  a  court  is 
near  at  hand,  paved  with  marble  squares  in  black  and 
white,  over  which  Akbar  and  his  vizier  used  to  sit  and 
gravely  play  at  draughts  with  dancinggirls  for  "  pieces." 

On  the  river  bank,  a  mile  from  Akbar's  palace,  in 
the  center  of  a  vast  garden  entered  through  the  noblest 
gateways  in  the  world,  stands  the  Taj  Mahal,  a  terrace 
rising  in  dazzling  whiteness  from  a  black  mass  of 
cypresses,  and  bearing  four  lofty,  delicate  minars,  and 
the  central  pile  that  gleams  like  an  Alp  against  the 
deep-blue  sky — minars,  terrace,  tomb,  all  of  spotless 
marble  and  faultless  shape.  Its  Persian  builders  named 
the  Taj  "  the  palace  floating  in  the  air." 

Out  of  the  fierce  heat  and  blazing  sunlight  you  enter 
into  chill  and  darkness,  but  soon  begin  to  see  the  hol- 
low dome  growing  into  form  above  your  head,  an$  the 
tomb  itself — that  of  Noor  Mahal,  the  favorite  queen  of 
Shah  Jehan — before  you,  and  beside  it  her  husband's 
humbler  grave.  Though  within  and  without  the  Taj 
is  white,  still  here  you  find  the  walls  profusely  jeweled, 
and  the  purity  retained.  Flowers  are  pictured  on  every 
block  in  mosaic  of  cinnamon  -  stone,  carnelian,  tur- 
quoise, amethyst,  and  emerald;  the  corridors  contain 
the  whole  Koran,  inlaid  in  jet-black  stone,  yet  the 
interior  as  a  whole  exceeds  in  chastity  the  spotlessness 
of  the  outer  dome.  Oriental,  it  is  not  barbaric,  and  a 


MOHAMMEDAN  CITIES.  199 

sweet  melancholy  is  the  effect  the  Taj  produces  on  the 
mind,  when  seen  by  day;  in  the  still  moonlight,  the 
form  is  too  mysterious  to  be  touching. 

In  a  Persian  manuscript,  there  still  remains  a  cata- 
logue of  the  prices  of  the  gems  made  use  of  in  the 
building  of  the  Taj,  and  of  the  places  from  which  they 
came.  Among  those  named  are  coral  from  Arabia, 
sapphires  from  Moldavia,  amethysts  from  Persia,  crys- 
tal from  China,  turquoises  from  Thibet,  diamonds  from 
Bundelcund,  and  lapis-lazuli  from  Ceylon.  The  stones 
were  presents  or  tribute  to  the  emperor,  and  the  master- 
masons  came  mostly  from  Constantinople  and  Bagdad 
— a  fact  which  should  be  remembered  when  we  are 
discussing  the  intellectual  capacity  of  the  Bengal  Hin- 
doos. That  a  people  who  paint  their  cows  pink  with 
green  spots,  and  their  horses  orange  or  bright  red, 
should  be  the  authors  of  the  Pearl  Mosque  and  the 
Taj,  would  be  too  wonderful  for  our  belief;  but  the 
Mohammedan  conquerors  brought  with  them  the 
chosen  artists  of  the  Moslem  world.  The  contrast 
between  the  Taj  and  the  Monkey  Temple  at  Benares 
reminds  one  of  that  between  a  Cashmere  and  a  Nor- 
wich shawl. 

It  is  not  at  Agra  alone  that  we  meet  the  works  of 
Mogul  emperors.  Much  as  we  have  ourselves  done  in 
building  roads  and  bridges,  there  are  many  parts  of 
Upper  India  where  the  traces  of  the  Moslem  are  still 
more  numerous  than  are  at  present  those  of  the  later 
conquerors  of  the  unfortunate  Hindoos.  Mosques, 
forts,  conduits,  bridges,  gardens — all  the  works  of  the 
Moguls  are  both  solid  and  magnificent,  and  it  was  with 
almost  reverential  feelings  that  I  made  my  pilgrimage 
to  the  tomb  at  Secundra  of  the  great  Emperor  Akbar, 
grandfather  of  Shah  Jehan,  son  of  Hoomayoon,  and 
founder  of  Agra  City. 


200  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  Mohammedans  in  India 
make  a  considerable  show  for  their  small  numbers. 
Of  the  great  cities  of  India,  the  three  Presidency 
towns  are  English;  and  the  three  gigantic  cities  of 
Delhi,  Agra,  and  Lucknow,  chiefly  Mohammedan.  Be- 
nares alone  is  a  Hindoo  city,  and  even  in  Benares  the 
Mohammedans  have  their  temples.  All  the  great 
buildings  of  India  are  Mohammedan;  so  are  all  the 
great  works  that  are  not  English.  Yet  even  in  the 
Agra  district  the  Mohammedans  are  only  one-twelfth 
of  the  population,  but  they  live  chiefly  in  the  towns. 

The  history  of  the  Mogul  empire  of  India  from  the 
time  of  the  conquest  of  the  older  empire  by  Tamer- 
lane in  the  fourteenth  centur}7,  and  the  forced  conver- 
sion to  Mohammedanism  of  a  vast  number  of  Hindoos, 
and  that  of  Akbar's  splendor  and  enormous  power, 
down  to  the  transportation  of  the  last  emperor  in  1857 
to  Rangoon,  and  the  shooting  of  his  sons  in  a  dry  ditch 
by  Captain  Hodson,  is  one  for  us  to  ponder  carefully. 
Those  who  know  what  we  have  done  in  India,  say  that 
even  in  our  codes — and  they  are  allowed  to  be  our  best 
claim  to  the  world's  applause — we  fall  short  of  Akbar's 
standard. 

Delhi,  the  work  of  Shah  Jehan,  founder  of  the  Taj 
and  the  Pearl  Mosque,  was  built  by  himself  in  a  wil- 
derness, as  was  Agra  by  the  Emperor  Akbar.  We 
who  have  seen  the  time  that  has  passed  since  its  foun- 
dation by  Washington  before  the  capital  of  the  United 
States  has  grown  out  of  the  village  shape,  cannot  deny 
that  the  Mogul  emperors,  if  they  were  despots,  were  at 
least  tyrants  possessed  of  imperial  energy.  Akbar 
built  Agra  twenty  or  thirty  miles  from  Futtehpore 
Sikri,  his  former  capital,  but  Jehan  had  the  harder 
task  of  forcing  his  people  to  quit  an  earlier  site  not 


MOHAMMEDAN  CITIES.  201 

five  miles  from  modern  Delhi,  while  Akbar  merely 
moved  his  palace  and  let  the  people  follow. 

Delhi  suffered  so  much  at  our  hands  during  the 
storm  in  1857,  and  has  suffered  so  much  since  in  the 
way  of  Napoleonic  boulevards  intended  to  prevent  the 
necessity  of  storming  it  again,  that  it  must  be  much 
changed  from  what  it  was  before  the  war.  The  walls 
which  surround  the  whole  city  are  nearly  as  grand  as 
those  of  the  fort  at  Agra,  and  the  gate  towers  are  very 
Gibraltars  of  brick  and  stone,  as  we  found  to  our  cost 
when  we  battered  the  Cashmere  Gate  in  1857.  The 
palace  and  the  Motee  Musjid  are  extremely  fine,  but 
inferior  to  their  namesakes  at  Agra;  and  the  Jumna 
Musjid — reputed  the  most  beautiful  as  it  is  the  largest 
mosque  in  the  world — impressed  me  only  by  its  size. 
The  view,  however,  from  its  minars  is  one  of  the  whole 
Northwest.  The  vast  city  becomes  an  ant-heap,  and 
you  instinctively  peer  out  into  space,  and  try  to  dis- 
cern the  sea  toward  Calcutta  or  Bombay. 

The  historical  memories  that  attach  to  Delhi  differ 
from  those  that  we  associate  with  the  name  of  Agra. 
There  is  little  pleasure  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
zenana,  where  the  miserable  old  man,  the  last  of  the 
Moguls,  dawdled  away  his  years. 


202  GREATER  BRITAIN. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

SIMLA. 

AFTER  visiting  Nicholson's  tomb  at  the  Cashmere 
Gate,  I  entered  my  one-horse  dawk — the  regulation 
carriage  of  India — and  set  off  for  Kurnaul  and  Simla, 
passing  between  the  sand-hills,  gravel-pits,  and  ruined 
mosques  through  which  the  rebel  cavalry  made  their 
famous  sortie  upon  our  camp.  It  was  evening  when 
we  started,  and  as  the  dawk-gharrees  are  so  arranged 
that  you  can  lie  with  comfort  at  full-length,  but  cannot 
sit  without  misery,  I  brought  my  canvas  bag  into  ser- 
vice as  a  pillow,  and  was  soon  asleep. 

When  I  woke,  we  had  stopped;  and  when  I  drew 
the  sliding  shutter  that  does  duty  for  door  and  window, 
and  peered  out  into  the  darkness,  I  discovered  that 
there  was  no  horse  in  the  shafts,  and  that  my  driver 
and  his  horse  syce — or  groom — were  smoking  their 
hubble-bubbles  at  a  well  in  the  company  of  a  passing 
friend.  By  making  free  use  of  the  strongest  language 
that  my  dictionary  contained,  I  prevailed  upon  the  men 
to  put  in  a  fresh  horse;  but  starting  was  a  different 
matter.  The  horse  refused  to  budge  an  inch,  except, 
indeed,  backwards,  or  sideways  toward  the  ditch.  Six 
grooms  came  running  from  the  stable,  and  placed  them- 
selves one  at  each  wheel,  and  one  on  each  side  of  the 
horse,  while  many  boys  pushed  behind.  At  a  signal 
from  the  driver,  the  four  wheelmen  threw  their  whole 
weight  on  the  spokes,  and  one  of  the  men  at  the  horse's 


SIMLA.  203 

head  held  up  the  obstinate  brute's  off  fore-leg,  so  that 
he  was  fairly  run  off  the  ground,  and  forced  to  make  a 
start,  which  he  did  with  a  violent  plunge,  for  which  all 
the  grooms  were,  however,  well  prepared.  As  they 
yelled  with  triumph,  we  dashed  along  for  some  twenty 
yards,  then  swerved  sideways,  and  came  to  a  dead  stop. 
Again  and  again  the  starting  process  was  repeated,  till 
at  last  the  horse  went  off'  at  a  gallop,  which  carried  us 
to  the  end  of  the  stage.  This  is  the  only  form  of  start- 
ing known  to  up-country  horses,  as  I  soon  found;  but 
sometimes  even  this  ceremony  fails  to  start  the  horse, 
and  twice  in  the  Delhi-to-Kalka  journey  we  lost  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  over  horses,  and  had  finally  to  get 
others  from  the  stable. 

About  midnight,  we  reached  a  government  bunga- 
low, or  roadside  inn,  where  I  was  to  sup,  and  five 
minutes  produced  a  chicken  curry  which,  in  spite  of 
its  hardness,  was  disposed  of  in  as  many  more.  Mean- 
while a  storm  had  come  rumbling  and  roaring  across 
the  skies,  and  when  I  went  to  the  door  to  start,  the 
bungalow  butler  and  cook  pointed  to  the  gharree,  and 
told  me  that  driver  and  horse  were  gone.  Not  wish- 
ing the  bungalow  men  to  discover  how  small  was  my 
stock  of  Hindostanee,  I  paid  careful  attention  to  their 
conversation,  and  looked  up  each  time  that  I  heard 
"sahib,"  as  I  knew  that  then  they  must  be  talking 
about  me.  Seeing  this,  they  seemed  to  agree  that  I 
was  a  thorough  Hindostanee  scholar,  but  too  proud  to 
answer  when  they  spoke.  While  they  were  humbly 
requesting  that  I  would  bow  to  the  storm  and  sleep  in 
the  bungalow,  which  was  filled  with  twittering  spar- 
rows, waked  by  the  thunder  or  the  lights,  I  was  read- 
ing my  dictionary  by  the  faint  glimmer  of  the  cocoa- 
nut  oil-lamp,  and  trying  to  find  out  how  I  was  to  declare 
that  I  insisted  on  going  on  at  once.  When  at  last  I 


204  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

hit  upon  my  phrase,  the  storm  was  over,  and  the  butler 
soon  found  both  horse  and  driver.  After  this  adven- 
ture, my  Hindostauee  improved  fast. 

A  remarkable  misapprehension  prevails  in  England 
concerning  the  languages  of  India.  The  natives  of 
India,  we  are  inclined  to  believe,  speak  Hindostanee, 
which  is  the  language  of  India  as  English  is  that  of 
Britain.  The  truth  is  that  there  are  in  India  a  multi- 
tude of  languages,  of  which  Hindostanee  is  not  even 
one.  Besides  the  great  tongues,  Urdu,  Maratti,  and 
Tamil,  there  are  dozens,  if  not  hundreds,  of  local 
languages,  and  innumerable  dialects  of  each.  Hindo- 
stanee is  a  camp  language,  which  contains  many  native 
words,  but  which  also  is  largely  composed  of  imported 
Arabic  and  Persian  words,  and  which  is  not  without 
specimens  of  English  and  Portuguese.  "  Saboon,"  for 
soap,  is  the  latter;  "glassie,"  for  a  tumbler,  and 
"istubul,"  for  a  stable,  the  former:  but  almost  every 
common  English  phrase  and  English  word  of  command 
forms  in  a  certain  measure  part  of  the  Hindostanee 
tongue.  Some  terms  have  been  ingeniously  perverted ; 
for  instance,  "  Who  comes  there  ?"  has  become  "  Hook- 
urn  dar?"  "  Stand  at  ease!"  is  changed  to  "  Tundel 
tis,"  and  "Present  arms!"  to  "Furyunt  arm!"  The 
Hindostanee  name  for  a  European  lady  is  "  mem  sahib," 
a  feminine  formed  from  "  sahib" — lord,  or  European 
— by  prefixing  to  it  the  English  servants'  "mum,"  or 
corruption  of  "madam."  Some  pure  Hindostanee 
words  have  a  comical  sound  enough  to  English  ears,  as 
"  hookin,"  an  order,  pronounced  "  hook'em ;"  "  misri," 
sugar,  which  sounds  like  "misery;"  utop,"  fever; 
"  molly,"  a  gardener;  and  "  dolly,"  a  bundle  of  vege- 
tables. 

Dawk  traveling   in   the  Punjaub   is   by  no  means 
unpleasant;  by  night  you  sleep  soundly,  and  by  day 


SIMLA.  205 

there  is  no  lack  of  life  in  the  mere  traffic  on  the  road, 
while  the  general  scene  is  full  of  charm.  Here  and 
there  are  serais,  or  corrals,  built  by  the  Mogul  empe- 
rors or  by  the  British  government  for  the  use  of  native 
travelers.  Our  word  " caravan sery"  is  properly  "cara- 
van-serai," an  inclosure  for  the  use  of  those  traveling 
in  caravans.  The  keeper  of  the  serai  supplies  water, 
provender,  and  food,  and  at  night  the  serais  along  the 
road  glow  with  the  cooking-tires  and  resound  with  the 
voices  of  thousands  of  natives,  who  when  on  journeys 
never  seem  to  sleep.  Throughout  the  plains  of  India, 
the  high-roads  pass  villages,  serais,  police-stations,  and 
groups  of  trees  at  almost  equal  intervals.  The  space 
between  clump  and  clump  is  generally  about  three 
miles,  and  in  this  distance  you  never  see  a  house,  so 
compact  are  the  Indian  villages.  The  Northwest  Prov- 
inces are  the  most  densely-peopled  countries  of  the 
world,  yet  between  village  and  village  you  often  see 
no  trace  of  man,  while  jackals  and  wild  blue-cows 
roam  about  as  freely  as  though  the  country  were  an 
untrodden  wilderness. 

Each  time  you  reach  a  clump  of  banyans,  tamarind 
and  tulip  trees,  you  find  the  same  tenants  of  its  shades : 
village  police-station,  government  posting-stable,  and 
serai  are  always  inclosed  within  its  limits.  All  the 
villages  are  fortified  with  lofty  walls  of  mud  or  brick, 
as  are  the  numerous  police-stations  along  the  road, 
where  the  military  constabulary,  in  their  dark-blue 
tunics,  yellow  trowsers,  and  huge  puggrees  of  bright 
red,  rise  up  from  sleep  or  hookah  as  you  pass,  and, 
turning  out  with  tulwars  and  rifles,  perform  the  mili- 
tary salute — due  in  India  to  the  white  face  from  all 
native  troops.  Your  skin  here  is  your  patent  of  aris- 
tocracy and  your  passport,  all  in  one. 

It  is  not  only  by  the  police  and  troops  that  you  are 

VOL.  II.  18 


206  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

saluted:  the  natives  all  salaam  to  you— except  mere 
coolies,  who  do  not  think  themselves  worthy  even  to 
offer  a  salute — and  many  Anglo-Indians  refuse  to  re- 
turn their  bow.  Every  Englishman  in  India  ought  to 
act  as  though  he  were  an  ambassador  of  the  Queen 
and  people,  and  regulate  accordingly  his  conduct  in 
the  most  trifling  things;  but  too  often  the  low  bow 
and  humble  "  Salaam  sahib"  is  not  acknowledged  even 
by  a  curt  "  Salaam." 

In  the  drier  portions  of  the  country,  women  were 
busy  with  knives  digging  up  little  roots  of  grass  for 
horse-food ;  and  four  or  five  times  a  day  a  great  bugling 
would  be  heard  and  answered  by  my  driver,  while  the 
mail-cart  shot  by  us  at  full  speed.  The  astonishment 
with  which  I  looked  upon  the  Indian  plains  grew  even 
stronger  as  I  advanced  up  country.  Not  only  is  bush 
scarce,  and  forest  never  seen,  but  where  there  is  jungle 
it  is  of  the  thinnest  and  least  tropical  kind.  It  would 
be  harder  to  traverse,  on  horse  or  foot,  the  thinnest 
coppice  in  the  south  of  England  than  the  densest  jungle 
in  the  plain  country  of  all  India. 

Both  in  the  villages  and  in  the  desert  portions  of  the 
road,  the  ground-squirrels  galloped  in  troops  before  the 
dawk,  and  birds  without  number  hopped  fearlessly  be- 
side us  as  we  passed ;  hoopoes,  blue-jays,  and  minas 
were  the  commonest,  but  there  were  many  paddy-birds 
and  graceful  golden  egrets  in  the  lower  grounds. 

Between  Delhi  and  Kurnaul  were  many  ruins,  now 
green  with  the  pomegranate  leaf,  now  scarlet  with  the 
bloom  of  the  peacock-tree,  and,  about  the  ancient  vil- 
lages, acre  after  acre  of  plantain-garden,  irrigated  by 
the  conduits  of  the  Mohammedan  conquerors;  at  last, 
Kurnaul  itself — a  fortified  town — seen  through  a  forest 
of  date,  wild  mango,  and  banyan,  with  patches  of  wheat 
about  it,  and  strings  of  laden  camels  winding  along  the 


SIMLA.  207 

dusty  road.  After  a  bheestie  had  poured  a  skinful  of 
water  over  me,  I  set  off  again  for  Kalka,  halting  in  the 
territory  of  the  Puttiala  Rajah  to  see  his  gardens  at 
Pinjore,  and  then  passed  on  toward  the  base  of  the 
Himalayan  foot-hills.  The  wheat-harvest  was  in  prog- 
ress in  the  Kalka  country,  and  the  girls,  reaping  with 
the  sickle,  and  carrying  away  the  sheaves  upon  their 
heads,  bore  themselves  gracefully,  as  Hindoo  women 
ever  do,  and  formed  a  contrast  to  the  coarse  old  land- 
owners as  these  rode  past,  each  followed  by  his  pipe- 
bearer  and  his  retinue. 

A  Goorkha  battalion  and  a  Thibetan  goat-train  had 
just  entered  Kalka  when  I  reached  it,  and  the  confu- 
sion was  such  that  I  started  at  once  in  a  jampan  up  the 
sides  of  the  brown  and  desolate  hills.  A  jampan,  called, 
tonjon  in  Madras,  is  an  arm-chair  in  shafts,  and  built 
more  lightly  than  a  sedan;  it  is  carried  at  a  short  trot 
by  four  men,  while  another  four,  and  a  mate  or  chief, 
make  their  way  up  the  hills  before  you,  and  meet  you 
here  and  there  to  relieve  guard.  The  hire  of  the  jam- 
pan  and  nine  men  is  less  than  that  of  a  pony  and  groom 
— a  curious  illustration  of  the  cheapness  of  labor  in  the 
East.  When  you  first  reach  India,  this  cheapness  is  a 
standing  wonder.  At  your  hotel  at  Calcutta  you  are 
asked,  "You  wish  boy  pull  punkah  all  night?  Boy 
pull  punkah  all  day  and  all  night  for  two  annas"  (3d.). 
On  some  parts  of  the  railway  lines,  where  there  is  also 
a  good  road,  the  natives  find  it  cheaper  to  travel  by 
palankeen  than  to  ride  in  a  third-class  railway  car- 
riage. It  is  cheaper  in  Calcutta  to  be  carried  by  four 
men  in  apalki  than  to  ride  in  a  "second-class  gharry," 
or  very  bad  cab ;  and  the  streets  of  the  city  are  inva- 
riably watered  by  hand  by  bheesties  with  skins.  The 
key  to  Indian  politics  lies  in  these  facts. 

At  Wilson's  at  Calcutta,  the  rule  of  the  hotel  obliges 


208  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

one  to  hire  a  kitmutghar,  who  waits  at  table.  This  I 
did  for  the  magnificent  wage  of  lid.  a  day,  out  of  which 
Cherry — the  nearest  phonetic  spelling  of  my  man's 
name — of  course  fed  and  kept  himself.  I  will  do  him 
the  justice  to  add  that  he  managed  to  make  about 
another  shilling  a  day  out  of  me,  and  that  he  always 
brought  me  small  change  in  copper,  on  the  chance  that 
I  should  give  it  him.  Small  as  seemed  these  wages,  I 
could  have  hired  him  for  one-fifth  the  rate  that  I  have 
named  had  I  been  ready  to  retain  him  in  my  service 
for  a  month  or  two.  Wages  in  India  are  somewhat 
raised  by  the  practice  of  dustooree — a  custom  by  which 
every  native,  high  or  low,  takes  toll  of  all  money  that 
passes  through  his  hands.  My  first  introduction  to 
this  institution  struck  me  forcibly,  though  afterward 
I  came  to  look  upon  it  as  tranquilly  as  old  Indians  do. 
It  was  in  the  gardens  of  the  Taj,  where,  to  relieve  my- 
self from  importunity,  I  had  bought  a  photograph  of 
the  dome :  a  native  servant  of  the  hotel,  who  accom- 
panied me  much  against  my  will,  and  who,  being  far 
more  ignorant  of  English  than  I  was  of  Hindostanee, 
was  of  absolutely  no  use,  I  had  at  last  succeeded  in 
warning  off  from  my  side,  but  directly  I  bought  the 
photograph  for  half  a  rupee,  he  rushed  upon  the  seller, 
and  claimed  one-fourth  of  the  price,  or  two  annas,  as 
his  share,  I  having  transgressed  his  privilege  in  buy- 
ing directly  instead  of  through  him  as  intermediary. 
I  remonstrated,  but  to  my  amazement  the  seller  paid 
the  money  quietly,  and  evidently  looked  on  me  as  a 
meddling  sort  of  fellow  enough  for  interfering  with 
the  institution  of  dustooree.  Customs,  after  all,  are 
much  the  same  throughout  the  world.  Our  sportsmen 
follow  the  habit  of  Confucius,  whose  disciples  two  or 
three  thousand  years  ago  proclaimed  that  "he  angled, 
but  did  not  use  a  net;  he  shot,  but  not  at  birds  perch- 


SIMLA.  209 

ing;"  our  servants,  perhaps,  are  not  altogether  inno- 
cent of  dustooree.  However  much  wages  may  be 
supplemented  by  dustooree,  they  are  low  enough  to 
allow  of  the  keeping  of  a  tribe  of  servants  by  persons 
of  moderate  incomes.  A  small  family  at  Simla  "  re- 
quire" three  body  servants,  two  cooks,  one  butler, 
two  grooms,  two  gardeners,  two  messengers,  two 
nurses,  two  washermen,  two  water-carriers,  thirteen 
jampan-men,  one  sweeper,  one  lamp-cleaner,  and  one 
boy,  besides  the  European  lady's  maid,  or  thirty-five 
in  all;  but  if  wages  were  doubled,  perhaps  fewer  men 
would  be  "absolutely  needed."  At  the  house  where 
I  stayed  at  Simla,  ten  jampan-men  and  two  gardeners 
were  supposed  to  be  continuously  employed  in  a  tiny 
flower-garden  round  the  house.  To  a  European  fresh 
from  the  temperate  climates  there  is  something  irk- 
some in  the  restraint  produced  by  the  constant  pres- 
ence of  servants  in  every  corner  of  an  Indian  house. 
To  pull  off  one's  own  socks  or  pour  out  the  water  into 
the  basin  for  one's  self  becomes  a  much-longed-for  lux- 
ury. It  is  far  from  pleasant  to  have  three  or  four 
natives  squatting  in  front  of  your  door,  with  nothing 
to  do  unless  you  find  such  odd  jobs  for  them  as  hold- 
ing the  heel  of  your  boot  while  you  pull  it  on,  or 
brushing  your  clothes  for  the  fourteenth  time. 

The  greater  or  less  value  of  the  smallest  coin  in 
common  use  in  a  country  is  a  rough  test  of  the  wealth 
or  poverty  of  its  inhabitants,  and  by  the  application  of 
it  to  India  we  find  that  country  poor  indeed.  At  Agra, 
I  had  gone  io  a  money-changer  in  the  bazaar,  and 
asked  him  for  change,  in  the  cowrie-shells  which  do 
duty  as  money,  for  an  anna,  or  \\d.  piece.  He  gave 
me  handful  after  handful,  till  I  cried  enough.  Yet 
when  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  I  had  a  per- 
formance on  my  threshold  of  "  Tasa-ba-tasa " — that 

18* 


210  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

singular  tune  which  reigns  from  Java  to  the  Bos- 
phorus,  with  Sanscrit  words  in  Persia,  and  Malay 
words  in  the  Eastern  islands — the  three  players 
seemed  grateful  for  half  a  dozen  of  the  cowries,  for 
they  treated  me  to  a  native  version  of  "  Vee  vont  gah 
ham  tall  mardid,  vee  vont  gah  ham  tall  mardid,"  by 
way  of  thanks.  Many  strange  natural  objects  pass 
as  uncoined  money  in  the  East:  tusks  in  Africa, 
women  in  Arabia,  human  skulls  in  Borneo;  the  Red 
Indians  of  America  sell  their  neighbors'  scalps  for 
money,  but  have  not  yet  reached  the  height  of  civili- 
zation which  would  be  denoted  by  their  keeping 
them  to  use  as  such ;  cowrie-shells,  however,  pass  as 
money  in  almost  every  ancient  trading  country  of  the 
world. 

The  historical  cheapness  of  labor  in  India  has  led  to 
such  an  obstinate  aversion  to  all  labor-saving  expe- 
dients that  such  great  works  as  the  making  of  railway 
embankments  and  the  boulevard  construction  at  Delhi 
are  conducted  by  the  scraping  together  of  earth  with 
the  hands,  and  the  collected  pile  is  slowly  placed  in 
tiny  baskets,  much  like  strawberry  pottles,  and  borne 
away  on  women's  heads  to  its  new  destination.  Wheel- 
barrows, water-carts,  picks,  and  shovels  are  in  India 
all  unknown. 

If,  on  my  road  from  Kalka  to  Simla,  I  had  an  exam- 
ple of  the  cheapness  of  Indian  labor,  I  also  had  one 
of  its  efficiency.  The  coolie  who  carried  my  baggage 
on  his  head  trotted  up  the  hills  for  twenty-one  hours, 
without  halting  for  more  than  an  hour  or  two,  and 
this  for  two  days'  pay. 

During  the  first  half-hour  after  leaving  Kalka,  the 
heat  was  as  great  as  011  the  plains,  but  we  had  not 
gone  many  miles  before  we  came  out  of  the  heat  and 
dust  into  a  new  world,  and  an  atmosphere  every  breath 


SIMLA.  211 

of  which  was  life.  I  got  .out,  and  walked  for  miles; 
and  when  we  halted  at  a  rest-house  on  the  first  plateau, 
I  thoroughly  enjoyed  a  cup  of  the  mountain  tea,  and 
was  still  more  pleased  at  the  sight  of  the  first  red-coated 
English  soldiers  that  I  had  seen  since  I  left  Niagara. 
The  men  were  even  attempting  bowls  and  cricket,  so 
cool  were  the  evenings  at  this  station.  There  is  grim 
satire  in  the  fact  that  the  director-general  of  military 
gymnastics  has  his  establishment  at  Simla,  in  the  cold 
of  the  Snowy  Range,  and  there  invents  running  drills 
and  such  like  summer  diversions,  to  be  executed  by 
the  unfortunates  in  the  plains  below.  Bowls,  which 
are  an  amusement  at  Kussoolie,  would  in  the  hot 
weather  be  death  at  Kalka,  only  ten  miles  away ;  but 
so  short  is  the  memory  of  climate  that  you  are  no 
more  able  to  conceive  the  heat  of  the  plains  when  in 
the  hills  than  the  cold  of  the  hills  when  at  Calcutta. 

There  is  no  reason  except  a  slight  and  temporary 
increase  of  cost  to  prevent  the  whole  of  the  European 
troops  in  India  being  concentrated  in  a  few  cool  and 
healthy  stations.  Provided  that  all  the  artillery  be 
retained  in  the  hands  of  the  Europeans,  almost  the 
whole  of  the  English  forces  might  be  kept  in  half  a 
dozen  hill-stations,  of  which  Darjeeling  and  Bangalore 
would  be  two,  and  some  place  near  Bombay  a  third. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  men  would  be  incapable, 
through  want  of  acclimatization,  of  acting  on  the  plains 
if  retained  in  hill-stations  except  when  their  services 
were  needed ;  but  it  is  notoriously  the  fact  that  new- 
comers from  England — that  is,  men  with  health1 — do 
not  suifer  seriously  from  heat  during  the  first  six  months 
which  they  pass  upon  the  plains. 

Soon  after  dark,  a  terrific  thunder-storm  came  on,  the 
thunder  rolling  round  the  valleys  and  along  the  ridges, 
while  the  rain  fell  in  short,  sharp  showers.  My  men 


212  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

put  me  down  on  the  lee-side  of  a  hut,  and  squatted  for 
a  long  smoke.  The  custom  common  to  all  the  Eastern 
races  of  sitting  round  a  fire  smoking  all  night  long 
explains  the  number  and  the  excellence  of  their  tales 
and  legends.  In  Europe  we  see  the  Swedish  peasants 
sitting  round  their  heaVths  chatting  during  the  long 
winter  evenings:  hence  follow  naturally  the  Thor 
legends ;  our  sailors  are  with  us  the  only  men  given 
to  sitting  in  groups  to  talk :  they  are  noted  story-tellers. 
The  word  "yarn"  exemplifies  the  whole  philosophy  of 
the  matter/  We  meet,  however,  here  the  eternal  dif- 
ficulty of  which  is  cause  and  which  is  effect.  It  is  easy 
to  say  that  the  long  nights  of  Norway,  the  confined  space 
of  the  ship,  making  the  fo'castle  the  sailor's  only  lounge, 
each  in  their  way  necessitate  the  story-telling;  not  so 
in  India,  not  so  in  Egypt,  in  Arabia,  in  Persia:  there 
can  here  be  no  necessity  for  men  sitting  up  all  night  to 
talk,  short  of  pure  love  of  talk  for  talking's  sake. 

When  the  light  came  in  the  morning,  we  were  as- 
cending the  same  strangely-ribbed  hills  that  we  had 
been  crossing  by  torchlight  during  the  night,  and  were 
meeting  Chinese-faced  Thibetans,  with  hair  done  into 
many  pig-tails,  who  were  laboriously  bringing  over  the 
mountain  passes  Chinese  goods  in  tiny  sheep-loads. 
For  miles  I  journeyed  on,  up  mountain  sides-  and 
down  into  ravines,  but  never  for  a  single  moment 
upon  a  level,  catching  sight  sometimes  of  portions  of 
the  Snowy  Range  itself,  far  distant,  and  half  mingled 
with  the  clouds,  till  at  last  a  huge  mountain  mass 
rising  to  the  north  and  east  blocked  out  all  view  save 
that  behind  me  over  the  sea  of  hills  that  I  had  crossed, 
and  the  scene  became  monotonously  hideous,  with  only 
that  grandeur  which  hugeness  carries  with  it — a  view, 
in  short,  that  would  be  fine  at  sunset,  and  at  no  other 
time.  The  weather,  too,  grew  damp  and  cold — a  cruel 


SIMLA.  213 

cold,  with  driving  rain — and  the  landscape  was  dreari- 
ness itself. 

Suddenly  we  crossed  the  ridge,  and  began  to  de- 
scend, when  the  sky  cleared,  and  I  found  myself  on 
the  edge  of  the  rhododendron  forest — tall  trees  with 
dark-green  leaves  and  masses  of  crimson  flowers ; 
ferns  of  a  hundred  different  kinds  marking  the  beds 
of  the  rivulets  that  coursed  down  through  the  woods, 
which  were  filled  with  troops  of  chattering  monkeys. 

Rising  again  slightly,  I  began  to  pass  the  European 
bungalows,  each  in  its  thicket  of  deodar,  and  few  with 
flat  ground  enough  for  more  than  half  a  rose-bed  or  a 
quarter  of  a  croquet-ground.  On  either  side  the  ridge 
was  a  deep  valley,  with  terraced  rice-fields  five  thou- 
sand feet  below,  and,  in  the  distance,  on  the  one  side 
the  mist-covered  plains  lit  by  the  single  silvery  rib- 
bon of  the  distant  Sutlej,  on  the  other  side  the  Snowy 
Range. 

The  first  Europeans  whom  I  met  in  Simla  were  the 
Viceroy's  children  and  their  nurses,  who  formed  with 
their  escort  a  stately  procession.  First  came  a  tall 
native  in  scarlet,  then  a  jampan  with  a  child,  then  one 
with  a  nurse  and  viceregal  baby,  and  so  on,  the  bearers 
wearing  scarlet  and  gray.  All  the  residents  at  Simla 
have  different  uniforms  for  their  jampanees,  some 
clothing  their  men  in  red  and  green,  some  in  purple 
and  yellow,  some  in  black  and  white.  Before  reach- 
ing the  center  of  the  town,  I  had  met  several  Europeans 
riding,  although  the  sun  was  still  high  and  hot;  but 
before  evening  a  hailstorm  came  across  the  range  and 
filled  the  woods  with  a  chilling  mist,  and  night  found 
me  toasting  my  feet  at  a  blazing  fire  in  an  Alpine  room 
of  polished  pine — a  real  room,  with  doors  and  case- 
ment ;  not  a  section  of  a  street  with  a  bed  in  it,  as  are 
the  rooms  in  the  Indian  plains.  Two  blankets  were  a 


214  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

luxury  in  this  "tropical  climate  of  Simla,"  as  one  of 
our  best-informed  London  newspapers  once  called  it. 
The  fact  is  that  Simla,  which  stands  at  from  seven  to 
eight  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and  in  latitude  31°, 
or  7°  north  of  the  boundary  of  the  tropics,  has  a  climate 
cold  in  everything  except  its  sun,  which  is  sometimes 
strong.  The  snow  lies  on  the  ground  at  intervals  for 
five  months  of  the  year ;  and  during  what  is  by  courtesy 
styled  "the  hot  weather,"  cold  rains  are  of  frequent 
occurrence. 

The  climate  of  Simla  is  no  mere  matter  of  curiosity ; 
it  is  a  question  of  serious  interest  in  connection  with 
the  retention  of  our  Indian  empire.  When  the  gov- 
ernment seeks  refuge  here  from  the  Calcutta  heat,  the 
various  departments  are  located  in  tiny  cottages  and 
bungalows  up  on  the  mountain  and  down  in  the  valley, 
practically  as  far  from  each  other  as  London  from 
Brighton ;  and,  moreover,  Simla  itself  is  forty  miles 
from  Kalka  by  the  shortest  path,  and  sixty  by  the  bet- 
ter bridle-path.  There  is  clearly  much  loss  of  time  in 
sending  dispatches  for  half  the  year  to  and  from  a  place 
like  this,  and  there  is  no  chance  of  the  railway  ever 
coming  nearer  to  it  than  Kalka,  even  if  it  reaches  that. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  telegraph  is  replacing  the  rail- 
way day  by  day,  and  mountain  heights  are  no  bar  to 
wires.  This  poor,  little,  uneven  hill-village  has  been 
styled  the  "Indian  Capua"  and  nicknamed  the  "  Hill 
Versailles;"  but  so  far  from  enervating  the  ministers 
or  enfeebling  the  administration,  Simla  gives  vigor  to 
the  government,  and  a  hearty  English  tone  to  the  State 
papers  issued  in  the  hot  months.  English  ministers 
are  not  in  London  all  the  year  long,  and  no  men,  min- 
isters or  not,  could  stand  four  years'  continual  brain- 
work  in  Calcutta.  In  1866,  the  first  year  of  the  re- 
moval of  the  government  as  a  whole  and  publication 


SIMLA.  215 

of  the  Gazette  at  Simla  during  the  summer,  all  the 
arrears  of  work  in  all  the  offices  were  cleared  off  for 
the  first  time  since  the  occupation  by  us  of  any  part 
of  India. 

Bengal,  the  Northwest  Provinces,  and  the  Punjaub 
must  soon  be  made  into  "governorships,"  instead  of 
"  lieutenant-governorships,"  so  that  the  Viceroy  may 
be  relieved  from  tedious  work,  and  time  saved  by  the 
Northern  Governors  reporting  straight  home,  as  do  the 
Governors  of  Madras  and  Bombay,  unless  a  system  be 
adopted  under  which  all  shall  report  to  the  Viceroy. 
At  all  events,  the  five  divisions  must  be  put  upon  the 
same  footing  one  with  another.  This  being  granted, 
there  is  no  conceivable  reason  for  keeping  the  Viceroy 
at  Calcutta — a  city  singularly  hot,  unhealthy,  and  out 
of  the  way.  On  our  Council  of  India,  sitting  at  the 
capital,  we  ought  to  have  natives  picked  from  all  India 
for  their  honesty,  ability,  and  discretion ;  but  so  bad 
is  the  water  at  Calcutta,  that  the  city  is  deadly  to 
water-drinkers ;  and  although  they  value  the  distinc- 
tion of  a  seat  at  the  Council  more  than  any  other 
honor  within  their  reach,  many  of  the  most  distin- 
guished natives  in  India  have  chosen  to  resign  their 
places  rather  than  pass  a  second  season  at  Calcutta. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  argue  about  Cal- 
cutta's disadvantages.  It  is  enough  to  say  that,  of  all 
Indian  cities,  we  have  selected  for  our  capital  the  most 
distant  and  the  most  unhealthy.  The  great  question 
is,  Shall  we  have  one  capital,  or  two?  Shall  we  keep 
the  Viceroy  all  the  year  round  in  a  central  but  hot 
position,  such  as  Delhi,  Agra,  Allahabad,  or  Jubbel- 
pore,  or  else  at  a  less  central  but  cooler  station,  such  as 
Nassuck,  Poonah,  Bangalore,  or  Mussoorie?  or  shall 
we  keep  him  at  a  central  place  during  the  cool,  and  a 
hill  place  during  the  hot  weather  ?  There  can  be  but 


216  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

little  doubt  that  Simla  is  a  necessity  at  present,  but 
with  11  fairly  healthy  city,  such  as  Agra,  for  the  head- 
quarters of  the  government,  and  the  railway  open  to 
within  a  few  miles  of  Mussoorie,  so  that  men  could 
run  to  the  hills  in  six  or  seven  hours,  and  even  spend 
a  few  days  there  in  each  summer  month,  an  effin«-nt 
government  could  be  maintained  in  the  plains.  We 
must  remember  that  Agra  is  now  within  twenty-three 
days  of  London  ;  and  that,  with  the  Persian  Gu It'  rout  e 
open,  and  a  railway  from  Kurrachee  (the  natural  port 
of  England  in  India),  leave  for  home  would  be  a  mat- 
ter still  more  Him] tie  than  it  has  become  already.  With 
some  such  central  town  as  Poonah  for  the  capital,  the 
Bombay  and  Madras  commander-in-ehief'Khips  could 
be  abolished,  with  the  result  of  saving  a  considerable 
expense,  and  greatly  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the 
Indian  army.  It  is  probable  that  Simla  will  not  con- 
tinue to  be  the  chosen  station  of  the  government  in 
the  hills.  The  town  is  subject  to  the  ravages  of  dys- 
entery; the  cost  of  draining  it  would  be  immense,  and 
the  water  supply  is  very  limited ;  the  bheesties  have 
often  to  wait  whole  hours  for  their  turn. 

Mussoorie  has  all  the  advantages  and  none  of  the 
drawbacks  of  Simla,  and  lies  compactly  in  ground 
on  which  a  small  city  could  be  built,  whereas  Simla 
straggles  along  a  narrow  mountain  ridge,  and  up  and 
down  the  steep  sides  of  an  Alpine  peak.  It  is  ques- 
tionable, however,  whether,  if  India  is  to  be  governed 
from  at  home,  the  seat  of  government  should  not  be 
at  J'oonah,  within  reach  of  London.  The  telegraph 
has  already  made  viceroys  of  the  ancient  kind  impos- 
sible. 

The  sunrise  view  of  the  Snowy  Range  from  my  bun- 
galow was  one  rather  strange,  from  the  multitude  of 
peaks  in  sight  at  once,  than  either  beautiful  or  grand. 


COL  ONIZA  TION.  217 

The  desolate  ranges  of  foot-hills  destroy  the  beauty 
that  the  contrast  of  the  deodars,  the  crimson  rhododen- 
drons, and  the  snow  would  otherwise  produce,  and  the 
height  at  which  you  stand  seems  to  dwarf  the  distant 
ranges;  but  from  one  of  the  spots  which  I  reached  in 
a  mountain  march,  the  prospect  was  widely  different. 
Here  we  saw  at  once  the  sources  of  the  Jumna,  the 
Sutlej,  and  the  Ganges,  the  dazzling  peaks  of  Gun- 
gootrie,  of  Jumnotrie,  and  of  Kamet ;  while  behind  us 
in  the  distant  plains  we  could  trace  the  Sutlej  itself, 
silvered  by  the  hazy  rays  of  the  half-risen  sun.  We 
had  in  sight  not  only  the  26,000  feet  of  Kamet,  but  no 
less  than  twenty  other  peaks  of  over  20,000  feet,  snow- 
clad  to  their  very  bases,  while  between  us  and  the  near- 
est outlying  range  were  valleys  from  which  the  ear 
caught  the  humble  murmur  of  fresh-risen  streams. 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 

COLONIZATION. 

CONNECTED  with  the  question  of  the  site  of  the  future 
capital  is  that  of  the  possibility  of  the  colonization  by 
Englishmen  of  portions  of  the  peninsula  of  India. 

Hitherto  the  attempts  at  settlement  which  have  been 
made  have  been  mainly  confined  to  six  districts — My- 
soi  e,  where  there  are  only  some  dozen  planters ;  the 
Neilgherries  proper,  where  coffee-planting  is  largely 
carried  on;  Oude,  where  many  Europeans  have  taken 
land  as  zemindars,  and  cultivate  a  portion  of  it,  while 
they  let  out  the  remainder  to  natives  on  the  Metayer 
plan ;  Bengal,  where  indigo-planting  is  gaining  ground ; 
VOL.  n.  19 


218  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  Himalayan  valleys,  and  Assam.  Settlement  in  the 
hot  plains  is  limited  by  the  fact  that  English  children 
cannot  there  be  reared,  so  to  the  hill  districts  the  dis- 
cussion must  be  confined. 

One  of  the  commonest  of  mistakes  respecting  India 
consists  in  the  supposition  that  there  is  available  land 
in  large  quantities  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas. 
There  are  no  Himalayan  slopes;  the  country  is  all 
straight  up  and  down,  and  for  English  colonists  there 
is  no  room — no  ground  that  will  grow  anything  but 
deodars,  and  those  only  moderately  well.  The  hot  sun 
dries  the  ground,  and  the  violent  rains  follow,  and  cut 
it  through  and  through  with  deep  channels,  in  this  way 
gradually  making  all  the  hills  both  steep  and  ribbed. 
Mysore  is  still  a  native  State,  but,  in  spite  of  this,  Eu- 
ropean settlement  is  increasing  year  by  year,  and  there, 
as  in  the  Neilgherries  proper,  there  is  room  for  many 
coffee-planters,  though  fever  is  not  unknown  ;  but  when 
India  is  carefully  surveyed,  the  only  district  that  ap- 
pears to  be  thoroughly  suited  to  English  settlement, 
as  contrasted  with  mere  planting  or  land-holding,  is  the 
valley  of  Cashmere,  where  the  race  would  probably  not 
suiter  deterioration.  With  the  exception  of  Cashmere, 
none  of  the  deep  mountain  valleys  are  cool  enough  for 
permanent  European  settlement.  Family  life  is  im- 
possible where  there  is  no  home;  you  can  have  no 
English  comfort,  no  English  virtues,  in  a  climate  which 
forces  your  people  to  live  out  of  doors,  or  else  in  rock- 
ing-chairs or  hammocks.  Night-work  and  reading  are 
ail-but  impossible  in  a  climate  where  multitudes  of  in- 
sects haunt  the  air.  In  the  Himalayan  valleys,  the  hot 
weather  is  terribly  scorching,  and  it  lasts  for  half  the 
year,  and  on  the  hill-sides  there  is  but  little  fertile  soil. 

The  civilians  and  rulers  of  India  in  general  are  ex- 
tremely jealous  of  the  "interlopers,"  as  European  set- 


COLONIZATION.  219 

tiers  are  termed ;  and,  although  tea-cultivation  was  at 
first  encouraged  by  the  Bengal  government,  recent 
legislation,  fair  or  unfair,  has  almost  ruined  the  tea- 
planters  of  Assam.  The  native  population  of  that 
district  is  averse  to  labor,  and  coolies  from  a  distance 
have  to  be  brought  in ;  but  the  government  of  India, 
as  the  planters  say,  interferes  with  harsh  and  narrow 
regulations,  and  so  enormously  increases  the  cost  of 
imported  labor  as  to  ruin  the  planters,  who,  even  when 
they  have  got  their  laborers  on  the  ground,  cannot 
make  them  work,  as  there  exists  no  means  of  compel- 
ling specific  performance  of  a  contract  to  work.  The 
remedy  known  to  the  English  law  is  an  action  for 
damages  brought  by  the  employer  against  the  laborer, 
so  with  English  obstinacy  we  declare  that  an  action  for 
damages  shall  be  the  remedy  in  Burmah  or  Assam.  A 
provision  for  attachment  of  goods  and  imprisonment  of 
person  of  laborers  refusing  to  perform  their  portion  of 
a  contract  to  work  was  inscribed  in  the  draft  of  the 
proposed  Indian  "  Code  of  Civil  Procedure,"  but  vetoed 
by  the  authorities  at  home. 

The  Spanish  Jesuits  themselves  were  not  more  afraid 
of  free  white  settlers  than  is  our  Bengal  government. 
An  enterprising  merchant  of  Calcutta  lately  obtained 
a  grant  of  vast  tracts  of  country  in  the  Sunderbunds — 
the  fever-haunted  jungle  near  Calcutta — and  had 
already  completed  his  arrangements  for  importing 
Chinese  laborers  to  cultivate  his  acquisitions,  when 
the  jealous  civilians  got  wind  of  the  affair,  and  forced 
government  into  a  most  undignified  retreat  from  their 
agreement. 

The  secret  of  this  opposition  to  settlement  by  Euro- 
peans lies  partly  in  a  horror  of  "low-caste  Englishmen," 
and  a  fear  that  they  will  somewhat  debase  Europeans 
in  native  eyes,  but  far  more  in  the  wish  of  the  old 


220  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

civilians  to  keep  India  to  themselves  as  a  sort  of 
"  happy  hunting-ground" — a  wish  which  has  prompted 
them  to  start  the  cry  of  "  India  for  the  Indians" — which 
of  course  means  India  for  the  Anglo-Indians. 

Somewhat  apart  from  the  question  of  European 
colonization,  but  closely  related  to  it,  is  that  of  the 
holding  by  Europeans  of  landed  estates  in  India.  It 
will  perhaps  be  conceded  that  the  European  should, 
on  the  one  hand,  be  allowed  to  come  into  the  market 
and  purchase  land,  or  rent  it  from  the  government  or 
from  individuals,  on  the  same  conditions  as  those  which 
would  apply  to  natives,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
special  grants  should  not  be  made  to  Europeans  as 
they  were  by  us  in  Java  in  old  times.  In  Eastern 
countries,  however,  government  can  hardly  be  wholly 
neutral,  and,  whatever  the  law,  if  European  land-hold- 
ers be  encouraged,  they  will  come;  if  discouraged, 
they  will  stop  away.  From  India  they  stop  away, 
while  such  as  do  reach  Hindostan  are  known  in  offi- 
cial circles  by  the  significant  name  of  " interlopers." 

Under  a  healthy  social  system,  which  the  presence 
of  English  planters  throughout  India,  and  the  support 
which  would  thus  be  given  to  the  unofficial  press,  would 
of  itself  do  much  to  create,  the  owning  of  land  by  Eu- 
ropeans could  produce  nothing  but  good.  The  danger 
of  the  use  of  compulsion  toward  the  natives  would  not 
exist,  because  in  India — unlike  what  is  the  case  in 
Dutch  Java — the  interest  of  the  ruling  classes  would 
be  the  other  way.  If  it  be  answered  that,  once  in 
possession  of  the  land,  the  Europeans  would  get  the 
government  into  their  own  hands,  we  must  reply  that 
they  could  never  be  sufficiently  numerous  to  have  the 
slightest  chance  of  doing  anything  of  the  kind.  As 
we  have  seen  in  Ceylon,  the  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
planters  to  usurp  the  government  is  sternly  repressed 


COLONIZATION.  221 

by  the  English  people,  the  moment  that  its  true  bear- 
ing is  understood,  and  yet  in  Ceylon  the  planters  are 
far  more  numerous  in  proportion  to  the  population 
than  they  can  ever  be  in  India,  where  the  climate  of 
the  plains  is  fatal  to  European  children,  and  where 
there  is  comparatively  little  land  upon  the  hills;  while 
in  Ceylon  the  coffee-tracts,  which  are  mountainous  and 
healthy,  form  a  sensible  proportion  of  the  whole  lands 
of  the  island.  It  is  true  that  the  press,  when  once 
completely  in  the  planters'  hands,  may  advocate  their 
interests  at  the  expense  of  those  of  the  natives,  but  in 
the  case  of  Queensland  we  have  seen  that  this  is  no 
protection  to  the  planters  against  the  inquisitive  home 
eye,  which  would  be  drawn  to  India  as  it  has  been  to 
Queensland  by  the  reports  of  independent  travelers 
and  of  interested  but  honest  missionaries. 

The  infamies  of  the  foundation  of  the  indigo-plan- 
tations in  Bengal,  and  of  many  of  the  tea-plantations 
in  Assam,  in  which  violence  was  freely  used  to  make 
the  natives  grow  the  selected  crop,  and  in  some  cases 
the  land  actually  stolen  from  its  owners,  have  gone  far 
to  make  European  settlement  in  India  a  by-word  among 
the  friends  of  the  Hindoo;  but  it  is  clear  that  an  effi- 
cient police  would  suffice  to  restrain  these  illegalities 
and  hideous  wrongs.  It  might  become  advisable  in 
the  interest  of  the  natives  to  provide  that  not  only  the 
officers,  but  also  the  sub-officers  and  some  constables 
of  the  police,  should  be  Europeans  in  districts  where 
the  plantations  lay,  great  care  being  taken  to  select 
honest  and  fearless  men,  and  to  keep  a  strict  watch  on 
their  conduct. 

The  two  great  securities  against  that  further  degra- 
dation of  the  natives  which  has  been  foretold  as  a  result 
of  the  expected  influx  of  Europeans  are  the  general 
teaching  of  the  English  language,  and  the  grant  of 

19* 


222  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

perfect  freedom  of  action  (the  government  standing 
aloof)  to  missionaries  of  every  creed  under  heaven. 
The  bestowal  of  the  English  tongue  upon  the  natives 
will  give  the  local  newspapers  a  larger  circulation 
among  them  than  among  the  planter  classes,  and  so, 
by  the  powerful  motive  of  self-interest,  force  them  to 
the  side  of  liberty ;  while  the  honesty  of  some  of  the 
missionaries  and  the  interest  of  others  will  certainly 
place  the  majority  of  the  religious  bodies  011  the  side 
of  freedom.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  success  of  a 
policy  which  would  be  opposed  by  the  local  press  and 
at  the  same  time  by  the  chief  English  Churches  is  not 
an  eventuality  about  which  we  need  give  ourselves 
concern,  and  it  is  therefore  probable  that  on  the  whole 
the  encouragement  of  European  settlement  upon  the 
plains  would  be  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  native 
race. 

That  settlement  or  colonization  would  make  our 
tenure  of  India  more  secure  is  very  doubtful,  and,  if 
certain,  would  be  a  point  of  little  moment.  If,  when 
India  has  passed  through  the  present  transition  stage 
from  a  country  of  many  peoples  to  a  country  of  only 
one,  we  cannot  continue  to  rule  her  by  the  consent  of 
the  majority  of  her  inhabitants,  our  occupation  of  the 
country  must  come  to  an  end,  whether  we  will  or  no. 
At  the  same  time,  the  union  of  interests  and  community 
of  ideas  which  would  rise  out  of  well-ordered  settle- 
ment would  do  much  to  endear  our  government  to  the 
great  body  of  the  natives.  As  a  warning  against 
European  settlement  as  it  is,  every  Englishman  should 
read  the  drama  "Nil  Darpan." 

During  my  stay  at  Simla,  I  visited  a  pretty  fair  in 
one  of  the  neighboring  valleys.  There  was  much 
buffoonery  and  dancing — among  other  things,  a  sort  of 
iig  by  a  fakeer,  who  danced  himself  into  a  tit,  real  or 


COL  ONIZA  TION.  223 

pretended;  but  the  charm  of  this,  as  of  all  Hindoo 
gatherings,  lay  in  the  color.  The  women  of  the  Pun- 
jaub  dress  very  gayly  for  their  fetes,  wearing  tight-fit- 
ting trowsers  of  crimson,  blue,  or  yellow,  and  a  long 
thin  robe  of  white,  or  crimson-grounded  Cashmere 
shawl ;  bracelets  and  anklets  of  silver,  and  a  nose-ring, 
either  huge  and  thin,  or  small  and  nearly  solid,  com- 
plete the  dress. 

At  the  fair  were  many  of  the  Goorkhas  (of  whom 
there  is  a  regiment  at  Simla),  who  danced,  and  seem- 
ingly enjoyed  themselves  immensely;  indeed,  the 
natives  of  all  parts  of  India,  from  Nepaiil  to  the  Deccan, 
possess  a  most  enviable  faculty  of  amusement,  and  they 
say  that  there  is  a  professional  buffoon  attached  to 
every  Goorkha  regiment.  Their  full-dress  is  like  that 
of  the  French  chasseurs  d  pied,  but  in  their  undress 
uniform  of  white,  the  trowsers  worn  so  tight  as  to 
wrinkle  from  stretching — these  dashing  little  fellows, 
with  their  thin  legs,  broad  shoulders,  bullet  heads,  and 
flat  faces,  look  extremely  like  a  corps  of  jockeys.  A 
general  inspecting  one  of  these  regiments  once  said  to 
the  colonel :  "  Your  men  are  small,  sir."  "  Their  pay 
is  small,  sir ! "  growled  the  colonel,  in  a  towering  passion. 

There  were  unmistakable  traces  of  Buddhist  archi- 
tecture in  the  little  valley  Hindoo  shrine.  Of  the 
Chinese  pilgrimages  to  India  in  the  Buddhist  period 
there  are  many  records  yet  extant,  and  one  of  these, 
we  are  told,  relates  how,  as  late  as  the  fourteenth 
century,  the  Emperor  of  China  asked  leave  of  the 
Delhi  ruler  to  rebuild  a  temple  at  the  southern  base 
of  the  Himalayas,  inasmuch  as  it  was  visited  by  his 
Tartar  people. 


224  GEEATEE  BEITAIN. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    "  GAZETTE." 

OF  all  printed  information  upon  India,  there  is  none 
which,  either  for  value  or  interest,  can  be  ranked  with 
that  contained  in  the  Government  Gazette,  which 
during  my  stay  at  Simla  was  published  at  that  town, 
the  Viceroy's  Council  having  moved  there  for  the  hot 
weather.  Not  only  are  the  records  of  the  mere 
routine  business  interesting  from  their  variety,  but 
almost  every  week  there  is  printed  along  with  the 
Gazette  a  supplement,  which  contains  memoranda  from 
leading  natives  or  from  the  representatives  of  the  local 
governments  upon  the  operations  of  certain  customs, 
or  on  the  probable  effects  of  a  proposed  law,  or  similar 
communications.  Sometimes  the  circulars  issued  by 
the  government  are  alone  reprinted,  "  with  a  view  to 
elicit  opinions,"  but  more  generally  the  whole  of  the 
replies  are  given. 

It  is  difficult  for  English  readers  to  conceive  the 
number  and  variety  of  subjects  upon  which  a  single 
number  of  the  Gazette  will  give  information  of  some 
kind.  The  paragraphs  are  strung  together  in  the 
order  in  which  they  are  received,  without  arrange- 
ment or  connection.  "A  copy  of  a  treaty  with  his 
Highness  the  Maharajah  of  Cashmere"  stands  side  by 
side  with  a  grant  of  three  months'  leave  to  a  lieu- 
tenant of  Bombay  Native  Foot;  while  above  is  an  ac- 
count of  the  suppression  of  the  late  murderous  outrages 
in  the  Punjaub,  and  below  a  narrative  of  the  upsetting 


THE   "GAZETTE."  225 

of  the  Calcutta  mails  into  a  river  near  Jubbelpore.  "  A 
khureta  from  the  Viceroy  to  his  Highness  the  Rao 
Oornaid  Singh  Bahadoor"  orders  him  to  put  down 
crime  in  his  dominions,  and  the  humble  answer  of  the 
Rao  is  printed,  in  which  he  promises  to  do  his  best. 
Paragraphs  are  given  to  "the  floating  dock  at  Ran- 
goon;" "the  disease  among  mail  horses;"  "the  Suez 
Canal;"  "the  forests  of  Oude;"  and  "  polygamy  among 
the  Hindoos."  The  Viceroy  contributes  a  "  note  on  the 
administration  of  the  Khetree  chieftainship;"  the 
Bengal  government  sends  a  memorandum  on  "  bribery 
of  telegraph  clerks ;"  and  the  Resident  of  Kotah  an 
official  report  of  the  ceremonies  attending  the  recep- 
tion of  a  viceregal  khureta  restoring  the  honors  of  a 
salute  to  the  Maha  Rao  of  Kotah.  The  khureta  was 
received  in  state,  the  letter  being  mounted  alone  upon 
an  elephant  magnificently  caparisoned,  and  saluted 
from  the  palace  with  101  guns.  There  is  no  honor 
that  we  can  pay  to  a  native  prince  so  great  as  that  of 
increasing  his  salute,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  when 
the  Guicodar  of  Baroda  allows  a  suttee,  or  when  Jung 
Bahadoor  of  £Tepaul  expresses  his  intention  of  visiting 
Paris,  we  punish  them  by  docking  them  of  two  guns, 
or  abolishing  their  salute,  according  to  the  magnitude 
of  the  offense. 

An  Order  in  Council  confers  upon  the  High  Priest 
of  the  Parsees  in  the  Deccan,  "in  consideration  of 
his  services  during  the  mutiny  of  1857,"  the  honorary 
title  of  "Khan  Bahadoor."  A  paragraph  announces 
that  an  official  investigation  has  been  made  into  the 
supposed  desecration  by  Scindia  and  the  Viceroy  of  a 
mosque  at  Agra,  and  that  it  has  been  found  that  the 
place  in  question  was  not  a  mosque  at  all.  Scindia  had 
given  an  entertainment  to  the  Viceroy  at  the  Taj 
Mahal,  and  supper  had  been  laid  out  at  a  building  in 


226  GEEATEE    BEITAIN. 

the  grounds.  The  native  papers  said  the  building  was 
a  mosque,  but  the  Agra  officials  triumphantly  demon- 
strated that  it  had  been  used  for  a  supper  to  Lord  El- 
lenborough  after  the  capture  of  Cabool,  and  that  its 
name  meant  " Feast-place."  "Report  on  the  light- 
houses of  the  Abyssinian  coast;"  "  Agreement  with 
the  Governor  of  Leh,"  Thibet,  in  reference  to  the 
trans-Himalayan  caravans;  the  promotion  of  one  gen- 
tleman to  be  "Commissioner  of  Coorg,"  and  of  another 
to  be  "  Superintendent  of  the  teak  forests  of  Lower 
Burmah;"  "Evidence  on  the  proposed  measures  to 
suppress  the  abuses  of  polyandry  in  Travancore  and 
Cochin  (by  arrangement  with  the  Rajah  of  Travan- 
core);" "Dismissal  of  Policeman  Juggernauth  Ram- 
kam — Oude  division,  No.  11  company — for  gross  mis- 
conduct;" "Report  on  the  Orissa  famine;"  "Plague 
in  Turkey;"  "Borer  insects  in  coffee-plantations;" 
"  Presents  to  gentlemen  at  Fontainebleau  for  teaching 
forestry  to  Indian  officers;"  "Report  on  the  Cotton 
States  of  America,"  for  the  information  of  native 
planters;  "Division  of  Calcutta  into  postal  districts" 
(in  Bengalee  as  well  as  English) ;  "  Late  engagement 
between  the  Punjaub  cavalry  and  the  Afghan  tribes;" 
"Pension  of  3rs,  per  mensem  to  the  widow  (aged  12) 
of  Jararam  Chesa,  Sepoy,  27th  Bengal  1ST.  I.,"  are  other 
headings.  The  relative  space  given  to  matters  of  im- 
portance and  to  those  of  little  moment  is  altogether  in 
favor  of  the  latter.  The  government  of  two  millions 
of  people  is  transferred  in  three  lines,  but  a  page  is 
taken  up  with  a  list  of  the  caste-marks  and  nose-borings 
of  native  women  applying  for  pensions  as  soldiers' 
widows,  and  two  pages  are  full  of  advertisements  of 
lost  currency  notes. 

The  columns  of  the  Gazette,  or  at  all  events  its  sup- 
plements, offer  to  government  officials  whose  opinion 


THE  "GAZETTE."  227 

has  been  asked  upon  questions  on  which  they  possess 
valuable  knowledge,  or  in  which  the  people  of  their 
district  are  concerned,  an  opportunity  of  attacking  the 
-acts  or  laws  of  the  government  itself — a  chance  of 
which  they  are  not  slow  to  take  advantage.  One  cov- 
ertly attacks  the  license-tax;  a  second,  under  pre- 
tense of  giving  his  opinion  on  some  proposed  change 
in  the  contract  law,  backs  the  demands  of  the  indigo- 
planters  for  a  law  that  shall  compel  specific  perform- 
ance of  labor-contracts  on  the  part  of  the  workman, 
and  under  penalty  of  imprisonment;  another  lays  all 
the  ills  under  which  India  can.  be  shown  to  suffer  at 
the  door  of  the  home  government,  and  points  out  the 
ruinous  effects  of  continual  changes  of  Indian  Secre- 
taries in  London. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  overrate  the  importance 
of  the  supplements  to  the  Gazette,  viewed  either  as  a 
substitute  for  a  system  of  communicated  articles  to  the 
native  papers,  or  as  material  for  English  statesmen, 
whether  in  India  or  at  home,  or  as  a  great  experiment 
in  the  direction  of  letting  the  people  of  India  legis- 
late for  themselves.  The  results  of  no  less  than  three 
government  inquiries  were  printed  in  the  supplement 
during  my  stay  in  India,  the  first  being  in  the  shape 
of  a  circular  to  the  various  local  governments  request- 
ing their  opinion  on  the  proposed  extension  to  natives 
of  the  testamentary  succession  laws  contained  in  the 
Indian  Civil  Code:  while  the  second  related  to  the 
"  ghaut  murders,"  and  the  third  to  the  abuses  of  po- 
lygamy among  the  Hindoos.  The  second  and  third 
inquiries  were  conducted  by  means  of  circulars  ad- 
dressed by  government  to  those  most  interested, 
whether  native  or  European. 

The  evidence  in  reply  to  the  "  ghaut  murder"  circu- 
lar was  commenced  by  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  to 


228  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  government  of  Bengal  to  the  Secretary  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  India,  calling  the  attention  of  the  Viceroy 
in  Council  to  an  article  written  in  Bengalee  by  a  Hin- 
doo in  the  Dacca  Prokash  on  the  practice  of  taking  sick 
Hindoos  to  the  river-side  to  die.  It  appears  from  this 
letter  that  the  local  governments  pay  careful  attention 
to  the  opinions  of  the  native  papers — unless,  indeed, 
we  are  to  accept  the  view  that  "the  Hindoo"  was  a 
government  clerk,  and  the  article  written  to  order — a 
supposition  favored  by  its  radical  and  destructive  tone. 
The  Viceroy  answered  that  the  local  officers  and  na- 
tive gentlemen  of  all  shades  of  religious  opinion  were 
to  be  privately  consulted.  A  confidential  communica- 
tion was  then  addressed  to  eleven  English  and  four 
Hindoo  gentlemen,  and  the  opinions  of  the  English 
and  native  newspapers  were  unofficially  invited.  The 
Europeans  were  chiefly  for  the  suppression  of  the 
practice;  the  natives — with  the  exception  of  one,  who 
made  a  guarded  reply — stated  that  the  abuses  of  the 
custom  had  been  exaggerated,  and  that  they  could  not 
recommend  its  suppression.  The  government  agreed 
with  the  natives,  and  decided  that  nothing  should  be 
done — an  opinion  in  which  the  Secretary  of  State  con- 
curred. 

In  his  reply  to  the  "ghaut  murder"  circular,  the 
representative  of  the  orthodox  Hindoos,  after  point- 
ing out  that  the  Dacca  Prokash  is  the  Dacca  organ  of 
the  Brahmos,  or  Bengal  Deists,  and  not  of  the  true 
Hindoos,  went  on  to  quote  at  length  from  the  Hindoo 
scriptures  passages  which  show  that  to  die  in  the 
Ganges  water  is  the  most  blessed  of  all  deaths.  The 
quotations  were  printed  in  native  character  as  well 
as  in  English  in  the  Gazette.  One  of  the  officials  in 
his  reply  pointed  out  that  the  discouragement  of  a 
custom  was  often  as  effective  as  its  prohibition,  and 


THE   "GAZETTE."  229 

instanced  the  cessation  of  the  practice  of  "  hook-swing- 
ing" and  "self-mutilation." 

Valuable  as  is  the  correspondence  as  a  sample  of 
the  method  pursued  in  such  inquiries,  the  question 
under  discussion  has  not  the  importance  that  attaches 
to  the  examination  into  the  abuses  of  the  practice  of 
polygamy. 

To  prevent  an  outcry  that  the  customs  of  the  Hindoo 
people  were  being  attacked,  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  Bengal  stated  in  his  letters  to  the  government  of 
India  that  it  was  his  wish  that  the  inquiry  should  be 
strictly  confined  to  the  abuses  of  Koolin  polygamy, 
and  that  there  should  be  no  general  examination  into 
ordinary  polygamy,  which  was  not  opposed  even  by 
enlightened  Hindoos.  The  polygamy  of  the  Koolin 
Brahmins  is  a  system  of  taking  a  plurality  of  wives  as 
a  means  of  subsistence:  the  Koolins  were  originally 
Brahmins  of  peculiar  merit,  and  such  was  their  sanc- 
tity that  there  grew  up  a  custom  of  payments  being 
made  to  them  by  the  fathers  of  the  forty  or  fifty  women 
whom  they  honored  by  marriage.  So  greatly  has  the 
custom  grown  that  Koolins  have  sometimes  as  many 
as  eighty  wives,  and  the  husband's  sole  means  of  sub- 
sistence consists  in  payments  from  the  fathers  of  his 
wives,  each  of  whom  he  visits,  however,  only  once  in 
three  or  four  years.  The  Koolin  Brahmins  live  in 
luxury  and  indolence,  their  wives  exist  in  misery,  and 
the  whole  custom  is  plainly  repugnant  to  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Hindoo  scriptures,  and  is  productive  of 
vice  and  crime.  The  committee  appointed  for  the 
consideration  of  the  subject  by  the  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of  Bengal — which  consisted  of  two  English  ci- 
vilians and  five  natives — reported  that  the  suggested 
systems  of  registration  of  marriages,  or  of  fines  in- 
creasing in  amount  for  every  marriage  after  the  first, 
VOL.  n.  20 


230  GEEATEE    BEITAIN. 

would  limit  the  general  liberty  of  the  Hindoos  to  take 
many  wives,  which  they  were  forbidden  to  touch.  On 
the  other  hand,  to  recommend  a  declaratory  law  on 
plural  marriages  would  be  to  break  their  instructions, 
which  ordered  them  to  refrain  from  giving  the  sanc- 
tion of  English  law  to  Hindoo  polygamy.  One  native 
dissented  from  the  report,  and  favored  a  declaratory 
law. 

The  English  idea  of  "not  recognizing"  customs  or 
religions  which  exist  among  a  large  number  of  the 
inhabitants  of  English  countries  is  a  strange  one,  and 
productive  of  much  harm.  It  is  not  necessary,  indeed, 
that  we  should  countenance  the  worship  of  Jugger- 
naAith  by  ordering  our  officials  to  present  offerings  at 
his  shrine,  but  it  is  at  least  necessary  that  we  should 
recognize  native  customs  by  legislating  to  restrain  them 
within  due  limits.  To  refuse  to  "recognize"  polyg- 
amy, which  is  the  social  state  of  the  vast  majority  of 
the  citizens  of  the  British  Empire,  is  not  less  ridiculous 
than  to  refuse  to  recognize  that  Hindoos  are  black. 

Recognition  is  one  thing,  interference  another.  How 
far  we  should  interfere  with  native  customs  is  a  ques- 
tion upon  which  no  general  rule  can  be  given,  unless 
it  be  that  we  should  in  all  cases  of  proposed  interfer- 
ence with  social  usages  or  religious  ceremonies  consult 
intelligent  but  orthodox  natives,  and  act  up  to  their 
advice.  In  Ceylon,  we  have  prohibited  polygamy  and 
polyandry,  although  the  law  is  not  enforced;  in  India, 
we  "  unofficially  recognize"  the  custom;  in  Singapore, 
we  have  distinctly  recognized  it  by  an  amendment  to 
the  Indian  Succession  Law,  which  there  applies  to 
natives  as  well  as  Europeans.  In  India,  we  put  down 
suttee ;  while,  in  Australia,  we  tolerate  customs  at  least 
as  barbarous. 

One  of  the  social  systems  which  we  recognize  in 


THE   "GAZETTE."  231 

India  is  far  more  revolting  to  our  English  feelings 
than  is  that  of  polygamy — namely,  the  custom  of  poly- 
andry, under  which  each  woman  has  many  husbands 
at  a  time.  This  custom  we  unofficially  recognize  as 
completely  as  we  do  polygyny,  although  it  prevails 
only  on  the  Malabar  coast,  and  among  the  hill-tribes 
•  of  the  Himalaya,  and  not  among  the  strict  Hindoos. 
The  Thibetan  frontier  tribes  have  a  singular  form  of 
the  institution,  for  with  them  the  woman  is  the  wife 
of  all  the  brothers  of  a  family,  the  eldest  brother  choos- 
ing her,  and  the  eldest  son  succeeding  to  the  property 
of  his  mother  and  all  her  husbands.  In  Southern 
India,  the  polyandry  of  the  present  day  differs  little 
from  that  which  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century 
Piccolo  de  Conti  found  flourishing  in  Calicut.  Each 
woman  has  several  husbands,  some  as  many  as  ten, 
who  all  contribute  to  her  maintenance,  she  living  apart 
from  all  of  them ;  and  the  children  are  allotted  to  the 
husbands  at  the  will  of  the  wife. 

The  toleration  of  polygyny,  or  common  polygamy, 
is  a  vexed  question  everywhere.  In  India,  all  author- 
ities are  in  favor  of  respecting  it;  in  Natal,  opinion  is 
the  other  way.  While  we  suppress  it  in  Ceylon,  even 
among  black  races  conquered  by  us  with  little  pretext 
only  fifty  years  ago,  we  are  doubtful  as  to  the  propriety 
of  its  suppression  by  the  United  States  among  white 
people,  who,  whatever  was  the  case  with  the  original 
leaders,  have  for  the  most  part  settled  down  in  Utah 
since  it  has  been  the  territory  of  a  nation  whose 
imperial  laws  prohibit  polygamy  in  plain  terms. 

The  inquiries  into  the  abuses  of  polygamy  which 
have  lately  been  conducted  in  Bengal  and  in  Natal 
have  revealed  singular  differences  between  the  polyg- 
amy of  the  Hindoos  and  of  the  hill-tribes,  between 
Indian  and  Mormon  polygamy,  and  between  both  and 


232  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

the  Mohammedan  law.  The  Hindoo  laws,  while  they 
limit  the  number  of  legal  wives,  allow  of  concubines, 
and,  in  the  Maharajah  case,  Sir  Joseph  Arnould  went 
so  far  as  to  say  that  polygamy  and  courtesanship  are 
always  found  to  flourish  side  by  side,  although  the  re- 
verse is  notoriously  the  case  at  Salt  Lake  City,  where 
concubinage  is  punishable,  in  name  at  least,  by  death. 
Again,  poly  gamy  is  somewhat  discouraged  by  Moham- 
medan and  Hindoo  laws,  and  the  latter  even  lay  down 
the  sum  which  in  many  cases  is  to  be  paid  to  the  first 
wife  as  compensation  for  the  wrong  done  her  by  the 
taking  of  other  wives.  Among  the  Mormons,  on  the 
other  hand,  polygamy  is  enjoined  upon  the  faithful, 
and,  so  far  from  feeling  herself  aggrieved,  the  first  wife 
herself  selects  the  others,  or  is  at  the  least  consulted. 
Among  some  of  the  hill-tribes  of  India,  such  as  the 
Paharis  of  Bhaugulpoor,  polygamy  is  encouraged,  but 
with  a  limitation  to  four  wives. 

Among  the  Mohammedans,  the  number  of  marriages 
is  restricted,  and  divorce  is  common ;  among  the  Mor- 
mons, there  is  no  limit — indeed,  the  more  wives  the 
greater  a  man's  glory — and  divorce  is  ail-but  unknown. 
The  greatest,  however,  of  all  the  many  differences  be- 
tween Eastern  and  Mormon  polygamy  lies  in  the  fact 
that,  of  the  Eastern  wives,  one  is  the  chief,  while 
Mormon  wives  are  absolutely  equal  in  legitimacy  and 
rank. 

Not  only  is  equality  the  law,  but  the  first  wife  has 
recognized  superiority  of  position  over  the  others  in 
the  Mormon  family.  By  custom  she  is  always  con- 
sulted by  her  husband  in  reference  to  the  choice  of  a 
new  wife,  while  the  other  wives  are  not  always  asked 
for  their  opinion;  but  this  is  a  matter  of  habit,  and  the 
husband  is  in  no  way  bound  by  her  decision.  Again, 
the  first  wife — if  she  is  a  consenting  party — often  gives 


UMRITSUR.  233 

away  the  fresh  wives  at  the  altar;  but  this,  too,  is  a 
mere  custom.  The  fact  that  in  India  one  of  the  wives 
generally  occupies  a  position  of  far  higher  dignity  than 
that  held  by  the  others  will  make  Indian  polygamy 
easy  to  destroy  by  the  lapse  of  time  and  operation  of 
social  and  moral  causes.  As  the  city-dwelling  natives 
come  to  mix  more  with  the  Europeans,  they  will  find 
that  only  one  of  their  wives  will  be  generally  recog- 
nized. This  will  tend  of  itself  to  repress  polygamy 
among  the  wealthy  native  merchants  and  among  the 
rajahs  who  are  members  of  our  various  councils,  and 
their  example  will  gradually  react  upon  the  body  of  the 
natives.  Already  a  majority  of  the  married  people  of 
India  are  monogamists  by  practice,  although  polygam- 
ists  in  theory;  their  marriages  being  limited  by  poverty, 
although  not  by  law.  The  classes  which  have  to  be 
reached  are  the  noble  families,  the  merchants,  and  the 
priests ;  and  over  the  two  former  European  influence 
is  considerable,  while  the  inquiry  into  Koolinism  has 
proved  that  the  leading  natives  will  aid  us  in  repress- 
ing the  abuses  of  polygamy  among  the  priests. 


CHAPTER  X. 

UMRITSUR. 

AT  Umbala,  I  heard  that  the  Sikh  pilgrims  return- 
ing from  the  sacred  fair,  or  great  Hindoo  camp-meet- 
ing, at  Hurdwar,  had  been  attacked  by  cholera,  and 
excluded  from  the  town ;  and  as  I  quitted  Umbala  in 
the  evening,  I  came  upon  the  cholera-stricken  train  of 
pilgrims  escaping  by  forced  marches  toward  their 

20* 


234  GBEATEE    BRITAIN. 

homes,  in  many  cases  a  thousand  miles  away.  Tall, 
lithe,  long-bearded  men  with  large  hooked  noses,  high 
foreheads,  and  thin  lips,  stalked  along,  leading  by  one 
hand  their  veiled  women,  who  ran  behind,  their  crim- 
son and  orange  trowsers  stained  with  the  dust  of  travel, 
while  bullock-carts  decked  out  with  jingling  bells  bore 
the  tired  and  the  sick.  Many  children  of  all  ages 
were  in  the  throng.  For  mile  after  mile  I  drove 
through  their  ranks,  as  they  marched  with  a  strange 
kind  of  weary  haste,  and  marched,  too,  with  few  halts, 
with  little  rest,  if  any.  One  great  camp  we  left  behind 
us,  but  only  one ;  and  all  night  long  we  were  still  pass- 
ing ranks  of  marching  men  and  women.  The  march 
was  silent ;  there  was  none  of  the  usual  chatter  of  an 
Indian  crowd  ;  gloom  was  in  every  face,  and  the  people 
marched  like  a  beaten  army  flying  from  a  destroying 
foe. 

The  disease,  indeed,  was  pressing  on  their  heels. 
Two  hundred  men  and  women,  as  I  was  told  at  the 
Umbala  lines,  had  died  among  them  in  the  single  day. 
Many  had  dropped  from  fright  alone,  but  the  pestilence 
was  in  the  horde,  and  its  seeds  were  carried  into  what- 
ever villages  the  pilgrims  reached. 

The  gathering  at  Hurdwar  had  been  attended  by  a 
million  people  drawn  from  every  part  of  the  Punjaub 
and  Northwest ;  not  only  Hindoos  and  Sikhs,  but 
Scindhees,  Beloochees,  Pathans,  and  Afghans  had  their 
representatives  in  this  great  throng.  As  we  neared 
the  bridge  of  boats  across  the  Sutlej,  I  found  that  a 
hurried  quarantine  had  been  set  up  on  the  spot.  Only 
the  sick  or  dying  and  bearers  of  corpses  were  detained, 
however ;  a  few  questions  were  asked  of  the  remainder, 
and  ultimately  they  were  allowed  to  cross ;  but  driving 
on  at  speed,  I  reached  Jullundur  in  the  morning,  only 
to  find  that  the  pilgrims  had  been  denied  admittance 


UMRITSUR.  235 

to  the  town.  A  camp  had  b.een  formed  without  the 
city,  to  which  the  pilgrims  had  to  go,  unless  they  pre- 
ferred to  straggle  on  along  the  roads,  dropping  and 
dying  hy  the  way ;  and  the  villagers  throughout  the 
country  had  risen  on  the  wretched  people,  to  prevent 
them  returning  to  their  homes. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  government  of  India  should 
lately  have  turned  its  attention  to  the  regulation  or 
suppression  of  these  fairs,  for  the  city-dwelling  people 
of  North  India  will  not  continue  long  to  tolerate  enor- 
mous gatherings  at  the  commencement  of  the  hot 
weather,  by  which  the  lives  of  thousands  must  ulti- 
mately be  lost.  At  Hard  war,  at  Juggernauth,  and  at 
many  other  holy  spots,  hundreds  of  thousands — mil- 
lions, not  unfrequently — are  collected  yearly  from  all 
parts  of  India.  Great  princes  come  down  traveling 
slowly  from  their  capitals  with  trains  of  troops  and  fol- 
lowers so  long  that  they  often  take  a  day  or  more  to 
pass  a  given  spot.  The  Maharajah  of  Cashmere's  camp 
between  Kalka  and  Umbala  occupied  when  I  saw  it 
more  space  than  that  of  Aldershot.  Camels,  women, 
sutlers  without  count,  follow  in  the  train,  so  that  a 
body  of  five  thousand  men  is  multiplied  until  it  occupies 
the  space  and  requires  the  equipments  of  a  vast  army. 
A  huge  multitude  of  cultivators,  of  princes,  of  fakeers, 
and  of  roisterers  met  for  the  excitement  and  the 
pleasures  of  the  camp  is  gathered  about  the  holy  spot. 
There  is  religion,  and  there  is  trade ;  indeed,  the  re- 
ligious pilgrims  are  for  the  most  part  shrewd  traders, 
bent  on  making  a  good  profit  from  their  visit  to  the 
fair. 

The  gathering  at  Hurdwar  in  1867  had  been  more 
than  usually  well  attended  and  successful,  when  sud- 
denly a  rumor  of  cholera  was  heard ;  the  police  pro- 
cured the  break-up  of  the  camp,  and  government 


236  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

thought  fit  to  prohibit  the  visit  to  Simla  of  the  Mahara- 
jah of  Cashmere.  The  pilgrims  had  hardly  left  the 
camp  upon  their  journey  home  when  cholera  broke 
out,  and  by  the  time  I  passed  them  hundreds  were 
already  dead,  and  a  panic  had  spread  through  India. 
The  cholera  soon  followed  the  rumor,  and  spread  even 
to  the  healthiest  hill-towns,  and  6000  deaths  occurred 
in  the  city  of  Srinuggur,  after  the  Maharajah's  return 
with  his  infected  escort  from  Hurdwar.  A  government 
which  has  checked  infanticide  and  suppressed  suttee 
could  not  fail  to  succeed,  if  it  interfered,  in  causing 
these  fairs  to  be  held  in  the  cold  weather. 

At  Jullundur  I  encountered  a  terrible  dust-storm. 
It  came  from  the  south  and  west,  and,  to  judge  from 
its  fierceness,  must  have  been  driven  before  the  wind 
from  the  great  sandy  desert  of  Northern  Scinde.  The 
sun  was  rising  for  a  sultry  day,  when  from  the  south 
there  came  a  blast  which  in  a  minute  covered  the  sky 
with  a  leaden  cloud,  while  from  the  horizon  there  ad- 
vanced, more  slowly,  a  lurid  mass  of  reddish-brown. 
It  soon  reached  the  city,  and  then,  from  the  wall  where 
I  sought  shelter,  nothing  could  be  seen  but  driving 
sand  of  ocher  color,  nothing  heard  but  the  shrieking 
of  the  wind.  The  gale  ceased  as  suddenly  as  it  began, 
but  left  a  day  which,  delightful  to  travelers  upon  the 
Indian  plains,  would  elsewhere  have  been  called  by 
many  a  hard  name — a  day  of  lowering  sky  and  drop- 
ping rain,  with  chilling  cold — in  short,  a  day  that  felt 
and  looked  like  an  English  thaw,  though  the  ther- 
mometer must  have  stood  at  75°.  Another  legacy 
from  the  storm  was  a  view  of  the  Himalayas  such  as 
is  seldom  given  to  the  dwellers  on  the  plains.  Look- 
ing at  the  clouds  upon  the  northern  horizon,  I  suddenly 
caught  sight  of  the  Snowy  Range  hanging,  as  it  seemed, 
above  them,  half-way  up  the  skies.  Seen  with  a  fore- 


UMRITSUR.  237 

ground  of  dawk  jungle  in  bright  bloom,  the  scene  was 
beautiful ;  but  the  view  too  distant  to  be  grand,  except 
through  the  ideas  of  immensity  called  up  by  the  lofti- 
ness of  the  peaks.  While  crossing  the  Beeas  (the  an- 
cient Hyphasis,  and  eastern  boundary  of  the  Persian 
empire  in  the  days  of  Darius),  as  I  had  crossed  the 
Sutlej,  by  a  bridge  of  boats,  I  noticed  that  the  railway 
viaduct,  which  was  being  built  for  the  future  Urnritsur 
and  Delhi  line,  stood  someway  from  the  deep  water  of 
the  river;  indeed,  stood  chiefly  upon  dry  land.  The 
rivers  change  their  course  so  often  that  the  Beeas  and 
Sutlej  bridges  will  each  have  to  be  made  a  mile  long. 
There  has  lately  been  given  us  in  the  Punjaub  a  sin- 
gular instance  of  the  blind  confidence  in  which  gov- 
ernment orders  are  carried  out  by  the  subordinates. 
The  order  was  that  the  iron  columns  on  which  the 
Beeas  bridge  was  to  rest  should  each  be  forty-five  feet 
long.  In  placing  them,  in  some  cases  the  bottom  of 
the  forty-five  feet  was  in  the  shifting  sand — in  others, 
it  was  thirty  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  solid  rock ; 
but  a  boring  which  was  needless  in  the  one  case  and 
worse  than  useless  in  the  other  has  been  persevered  in 
to  the  end,  the  story  runs,  because  it  was  the  "  hook'm." 
The  Indian  rivers  are  the  great  bars  to  road  and  rail- 
way making ;  indeed,  except  on  the  Grand  Trunk  road, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  rivers  of  India  are  still  un- 
b ridged.  On  the  chief  mail-roads  stone  causeways  are 
built  across  the  river-beds,  but  the  streams  are  ail-but 
impassable  during  the  rains.  Even  on  the  road  from 
Kalka  to  Umbala,  however,  there  is  one  river-bed  with- 
out a  causeway,  across  which  the  dawk-gharree  is 
dragged  by  bullocks,  who  struggle  slowly  through  the 
sand ;  and,  in  crossing  it,  I  saw  a  stearn-engine  lying 
half  buried  in  the  drift. 

In  India,  we  have  been  sadly  neglectful  of  the  roads. 


238  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

The  Grand  Trunk  road  and  the  few  great  railroads  are 
the  only  means  of  communication  in  the  country. 
Even  between  the  terminus  of  the  Bengal  lines  at 
Jubbelpore  and  of  the  Bombay  railroad  at  ISTagpore 
there  was  at  the  time  of  my  visit  no  metaled  road, 
although  the  distance  was  but  200  miles,  and  the  mails 
already  passed  that  way.  Half  a  day  at  least  was  lost 
upon  all  the  Calcutta  letters,  and  Calcutta  passengers 
for  Bombay  or  England  were  put  to  an  additional  ex- 
pense of  some  <£30  and  a  loss  of  a  week  or  ten  days  in 
time  from  the  absence  of  200  miles  of  road.  Until  we 
have  good  cross-roads  in  India,  and  metaled  roads  into 
the  interior  from  every  railway  station,  we  shall  never 
succeed  in  increasing  the  trade  of  India,  nor  in  civil- 
izing its  inhabitants.  The  Grand  Trunk  road  is,  how- 
ever, the  best  in  the  world,  and  is  formed  of  soft  white 
nodules,  found  in  beds  through  North  India,  which 
when  pounded  and  mixed  with  water  is  known  as 
"kunkur,"  and  makes  a  road  hard,  smooth,  clean,  and 
lasting,  not  unlike  to  that  which  asphalt  gives. 

At  Umritsur  I  first  found  myself  in  the  true  East — 
the  East  of  myrtles,  roses,  and  veiled  figures  with  flash- 
ing eyes — the  East  of  the  "Arabian  Nights"  and  "Lalla 
Rookh."  The  city  itself  is  Persian,  rather  than  Indian, 
in  its  character,  and  is  overgrown  with  date-palms, 
pomegranates,  and  the  roses  from  which  the  precious 
attar  is  distilled.  Umritsur  has  the  making  of  the 
attar  for  the  world,  and  it  is  made  from  a  rose  which 
blossoms  only  once  a  year.  Ten  tons  of  petals  of  the 
ordinary  country  rose  (Rosa  centifolia)  are  used  annually 
in  attar-making  at  Umritsur,  and  are  worth  from  <£20 
to  <£30  a  ton  in  the  raw  state.  The  petals  are  placed 
in  the  retort  with  a  small  quantity  of  water,  and  heat 
is  applied  until  the  water  is  distilled  through  a  hollow 
bamboo  into  a  second  vessel,  which  contains  sandal- 


UMRITSUR.  239  - 

wood  oil.  A  small  quantity  of  pure  attar  passes  with 
the  water  into  the  receiver.  The  contents  of  the  re- 
ceiver are  then  poured  out,  and  allowed  to  stand  till 
the  attar  rises  to  the  surface,  in  small  globules,  and 
is  skimmed  off.  The  pure  attar  sells  for  its  weight  in 
silver. 

Umritsur  is  famous  for  another  kind  of  merchandise 
more  precious  even  than  the  attar.  It  is  the  seat  of 
the  Cashmere  shawl  trade,  and  three  great  French 
firms  have  their  houses  in  the  town,  where,  through 
the  help  of  friends,  shawls  may  be  obtained  at  singu- 
larly low  prices;  but  travelers  in  far-off  regions  are 
often  in  the  financial  position  of  the  Texan  hunter  who 
was  offered  a  million  of  acres  for  a  pair  of  boots — they 
"have  not  got  the  boots."  . 

It  is  only  shawls  of  the  second  class  that  can  be 
bought  cheap  at  Umritsur;  those  of  the  finest  quality 
vary  in  price  from  £40  to  X250,  <£30  being  the  cost  of 
the  material.  The  shawl  manufacture  of  the  Punjaub 
is  not  confined  to  Umritsur;  there  are  900  shawl- 
making  shops  in  Loodiana,  I  was  told  while  there. 
There  are  more  than  sixty  permanent  dyes  in  use  at 
the  Umritsur  shawl-shops;  cochineal,  indigo,  log- 
wood, and  saffron  are  the  commonest  and  best.  The 
shawls  are  made  of  the  down  which  underlies  the  hair 
of  the  "shawl-goat"  of  the  higher  levels.  The  yak, 
the  camel,  and  the  dog  of  the  Himalayas,  all  possess 
this  down  as  well  as  their  hair  or  wool ;  it  serves  them 
as  a  protection  against  the  winter  cold.  Chogas — long 
cloaks  used  as  dressing-gowns  by  Europeans — are  also 
made  in  Umritsur,  from  the  soft  wool  of  the  Bokhara 
camel,  for  Umritsur  is  now  the  headquarters  of  the 
Central  Asian  trade  with  Hindostan. 

The  bazaar  is  the  gayest  and  most  bustling  in 
India — the  goods  of  all  India  and  Central  Asia  are 


240  GEE ATE E   BRITAIN. 

there.  Dacca  muslin — known  as  "woven  air" — lies 
side  by  side  with  thick  chogas  of  kinkob  and  embroid- 
ered Cashmere,  Indian  towels  of  coarse  huckaback 
half  cover  Chinese  watered  silks,  and  the  brilliant  dyes 
of  the  brocades  of  Central  India  are  relieved  by  the 
modest  grays  of  the  soft  puttoo  caps.  The  buyers  are 
as  motley  as  the  goods — Rajpoots  in  turbans  of  deep 
blue,  ornamented  with  gold  thread,  Cashmere  valley 
herdsmen  in  strange  caps,  nautch  girls  from  the  first 
three  bridges  of  Srinuggur,  some  of  the  so-called  "  hill- 
fanatics,"  whose  only  religion  is  to  levy  contributions 
on  the  people  of  the  plains,  and  Sikh  troopers,  home 
on  leave,  stalking  through  the  streets  with  a  haughty 
swagger.  Some  of  the  Sikhs  wear  the  pointed  helmets 
of  their  ancestors,  the  ancient  Sakse ;  but,  whether  he 
be  helmeted  or  not,  the  enormous  white  beard  of  the 
Sikh,  the  fierce  curl  of  his  mustache,  the  cock  of  the 
turban,  and  the  amplitude  of  his  sash,  all  suggest  the 
fighting-man.  The  strange  closeness  of  the  likeness 
of  the  Hungarians  to  the  Sikhs  would  lead  one  to 
think  that  the  races  are  identical.  Not  only  are  they 
alike  in  build,  look,  and  warlike  habits,  but  they  brush 
their  beards  in  the  same  fashion,  and  these  little  cus- 
toms endure  longer  than  manners — longer,  often,  than 
religion  itself.  One  of  the  crowd  was  a  ruddy-faced, 
red-bearded,  Judas-haired  fellow,  that  looked  every 
inch  a  Fenian,  and  might  have  stepped  here  from  the 
Kilkenny  wilds;  but  the  majority  of  the  Sikhs  had 
aquiline  noses  and  fine  features,  so  completely  Jewish 
of  the  best  and  oldest  type  that  I  was  reminded  of 
Sir  William  Jones's  fanciful  derivation  of  the  Afghan 
races  from  the  lost  Ten  Tribes  of  Israel.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  the  Sikhs,  Afghans,  Persians,  ancient 
Assyrians,  Jews,  ancient  Scythians,  and  Magyars  were 
not  all  originally  of  one  stock. 


UMRITSUE.  241 

In  India,  dress  still  serves  the  purpose  of  denoting 
rank.  The  peasant  is  clothed  in  cotton,  the  prince 
in  cloth  of  gold;  and  even  religion,  caste,  and  occu- 
pation are  distinguished  by  their  several  well-known 
and  unchanging  marks.  Indeed,  the  fixity  of  fashion 
is  as  singular  in  Hindostan  as  its  infinite  changeable- 
ness  in  New  York  or  France.  The  patterns  we  see 
to-day  in  the  Bombay  bazaar  are  those  which  were 
popular  in  the  days  of  Shah  Jehan.  This  regulatiolf 
of  dress  by  custom  is  one  of  the  many  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  our  English  manufacturers  in  their 
Indian  ventures.  There  has  been  an  attempt  made 
lately  to  bring  about  the  commercial  annexation  of 
India  to  England:  Lancashire  is  to  manufacture  the 
Longee,  Dhotee,  and  Saree,  we  are  told;  Nottingham 
or  Paisley  are  to  produce  us  shumlas;  Dacca  is  to 
give  way  to  Norwich,  and  Coventry  to  supersede  Jey- 
poor.  It  is  strange  that  men  of  Indian  knowledge 
and  experience  should  be  found  who  fail  to  point  out 
the  absurdity  of  our  entertaining  hopes  of  any  great 
trade  in  this  direction.  The  Indian  women  of  the 
humbler  castes  are  the  only  customers  we  can  hope  to 
have  in  India;  the  high- caste  people  wear  only  orna- 
mented fabrics,  in  the  making  of  which  native  manu- 
facturers have  advantages  which  place  them  out  of  the 
reach  of  European  competition:  cheap  labor;  work- 
men possessed  of  singular  culture,  and  of  a  grace  of 
expression  which  makes  their  commonest  productions 
poems  in  silk  and  velvet;  perfect  knowledge  of  their 
customers'  wants  and  tastes;  scrupulous  regard  to 
caste  conservatism — all  these  are  possessed  by  the 
Hindoo  manufacturer,  and  absent  in  the  case  of  the 
firms  of  Manchester  and  Rochdale.  As  a  rule,  all 
Indian  dress  is  best  made  by  hand ;  only  the  coarsest 
and  least  ornamented  fabrics  can  be  largely  manu- 

VOL.  II.  21 


242  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

factured  at  paying  rates  in  England.  As  for  the 
clothing  of  the  poorer  people,  the  men  for  the  most 
part  wear  nothing,  the  women  little,  and  that  little 
washed  often,  and  changed  never.  Even  for  the 
roughest  goods  we  cannot  hope  to  undersell  the  native 
manufacturers  by  much  in  the  presidency  towns.  Up 
country,  if  we  enter  into  the  competition,  it  can 
scarcely  fail  to  be  a  losing  one.  England  is  not  more 
unlikely  to  be  clothed  from  India  than  India  from 
Great  Britain.  If  European  machinery  is  needed,  it 
will  be  erected  in  Yokohama,  or  in  Bombay,  not  in 
the  West  Elding. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  believed  that  Englishmen  have 
for  some  years  been  attempting  to  induce  the  natives 
to  adopt  our  flower  patterns — peonies,  butterflies,  and 
all.  Ornament  in  India  is  always  subordinate  to  the 
purpose  which  the  object  has  to  serve.  Hindoo  art 
begins  where  English  ends.  The  principles  which 
centuries  of  study  have  given  us  as  the  maxims  upon 
which  the  grammar  of  ornament  is  based  are  those 
which  are  instinctive  in  every  native  workman.  Every 
costume,  every  vase,  every  temple  and  bazaar  in  India, 
gives  eye-witness  that  there  is  truth  in  the  saw  that 
the  finest  taste  is  consistent  with  the  deepest  slavery  of 
body,  with  the  utmost  slavishness  of  mind.  A  Hindoo 
of  the  lowest  caste  will  spurn  the  gift  of  a  turban  or  a 
loin-cloth  the  ornamentation  of  which  consists  not  with 
his  idea  of  symmetry  and  grace.  Nothing  could  in- 
duce a  Hindoo  to  clothe  himself  in  such  a  gaudy,  mas- 
querading dress  as  maddens  a  Maori  with  delight  and 
his  friends  with  jealousy  and  mortification.  In  art  as 
in  deportment,  the  Hindoo  loves  harmony  and  quiet; 
and  dress  with  the  Oriental  is  an  art:  there  is  as  much 
feeling — as  deep  poetry — in  the  curves  of  the  Hindoo 
Saree  as  in  the  outlines  of  the  Taj. 


UMRITSUR.  243 

Umritsur  is  the  spiritual  capital  of  the  Sikhs,  and 
the  Durbar  Temple  in  the  center  of  the  town  is  the 
holiest  of  their  shrines.  It  stands,  with  the  sunbeams 
glancing  from  its  gilded  roof,  in  the  middle  of  a  very 
holy  tank,  filled  with  huge  weird  fish-monsters  that 
look  as  though  they  fed  on  men,  and  glare  at  you 
through  cruel  eyes. 

Leaving  your  shoes  outside  the  very  precincts  of  the 
tank,  with  the  police  guard  that  we  have  stationed 
there,  you  skirt  one  side  of  the  water,  and  then  leave 
the  mosaic  terrace  for  a  still  more  gorgeous  causeway, 
that,  bordered  on  either  side  by  rows  of  golden  lamp- 
supporters,  carries  the  path  across  toward  the  rich 
pavilion,  the  walls  of  which  are  as  thickly  spread  with 
gems  as  are  those  of  Akbar's  palace.  Here  you  are 
met  by  a  bewildering  din,  for  under  the  inner  dome 
sit  worshipers  by  the  score,  singing  with  vigor  the 
grandest  of  barbaric  airs  to  the  accompaniment  of 
lyre,  harp,  and  tomtom,  while  in  the  center,  on  a 
cushion,  is  a  long-bearded  gray  old  gooroo,  or  priest 
of  the  Sikh  religion — a  creed  singularly  pure,  though 
little  known.  The  effect  of  the  scene  is  much  en- 
hanced by  the  beauty  of  the  surrounding  houses,  whose 
oriel  windows  overhang  the  tank,  that  the  Sikh  princes 
may  watch  the  evolutions  of  the  lantern-bearing  boats 
on  nights  when  the  temple  is  illuminated.  When  seen 
by  moonlight,  the  tank  is  a  very  picture  from  the 
"Arabian  Nights." 

This  is  a  time  of  ferment  in  the  Sikh  religion.  A 
carpenter  named  Ram  Singh — a  man  with  all  that 
combination  of  shrewdness  and  imagination,  of  enthu- 
siasm and  worldliness,  by  which  the  world  is  governed 
— another  Mohammed  or  Brigham  Young,  perhaps — 
has  preached  his  way  through  the  Punjaub,  infusing 
his  own  energy  into  others,  and  has  drawn  away  from 


244  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

the  Sikh  Church  some  hundred  thousand  followers — 
reformers — who  call  themselves  the  Kookas.  These 
modern  Anabaptists — for  many  are  disposed  to  look 
upon  Ram  (Singh  as  another  John  of  Leyden — bind 
themselves  by  some  terrible  and  secret  oath,  and  the 
government  fear  that  reformation  of  religion  is  to  be 
accompanied  by  reformation  of  the  State  of  a  kind  not 
advantageous  to  the  English  power.  When  Ram  Singh 
lately  proclaimed  his  intention  of  visiting  the  Durbar 
Temple,  the  gooroos  incited  the  Sikh  fanatics  to  at- 
tack his  men  with  clubs,  and  the  military  police  were 
forced  to  interfere.  There  is  now,  however,  a  Kooka 
temple  at  Lahore. 

In  spite  of  religious  ferment,  there  is  little  in  the 
bazaar  or  temples  of  Umritsur  to  remind  one  of  the 
times — only  some  twenty  years  ago — when  the  Sikh 
army  crossed  the  Sutlej,  and  its  leaders  threatened  to 
sack  Delhi  and  Calcutta,  and  drive  the  English  out  of 
India;  it  is  impossible,  however,  to  believe  that  there 
is  no  undercurrent  in  existence.  Eighteen  years  cannot 
have  sufficed  to  extinguish  the  Sikh  nationality,  and 
the  men  who  beat  us  at  Chillianwallah  are  not  yet 
dead,  or  even  old.  When  the  Maharajah  Dhuleep 
Singh  returned  from  England  in  1864  to  bury  his 
mother's  body,  the  chiefs  crowded  round  him  as  he 
entered  Lahore,  and  besought  him  to  resume  his  posi- 
tion at  their  head.  His  answer  was  a  haughty  "Jao!" 
("Begone!")  If  the  Sikhs  are  to  rise  once  more,  they 
will  look  elsewhere  for  their  leader. 


LAHORE.  245 


CHAPTER   XL 

LAHORE. 

CROSSING  in  a  rail  way  journey  of  an  hour  one  of  the 
most  fertile  districts  of  the  Punjaub,  I  was  struck  with 
the  resemblance  of  the  country  to  South  Australia:  in 
each  great  sweeps  of  wheat-growing  lands,  with  here 
and  there  an  acacia  or  mimosa  tree ;  in  each  a  climate 
hot,  but  dry,  and  not  unhealthy ; — singularly  hot  here 
for  a  tract  in  the  latitude  of  Vicksburg,  near  which  the 
Mississippi  is  sometimes  frozen. 

Through  groves  of  a  yellow-blossomed,  sweet-scented, 
weeping  acacia,  much  like  laburnum,  in  which  the  for- 
tified railway  station  seems  out  of  place,  I  reached  the 
tomb-surrounded  garden  that  is  called  Lahore — a  city 
of  pomegranates,  oleanders,  hollyhocks,  and  roses. 
The  date-groves  of  Lahore  are  beautiful  beyond  de- 
scription; especially  so  the  one  that  hides  the  Agra 
Bank. 

Lahore  matches  Umritsur  in  the  purity  of  its  Orient- 
alism, Agra  in  the  strength  and  grandeur  of  its  walls : 
but  it  has  no  Tank  Temple  and  no  Taj ;  the  Great 
Mosque  is  commonplace,  Hunjeet  Singh's  tomb  is 
tawdry,  and  the  far-famed  Shalimar  Gardens  inferior 
to  those  of  Pinjore.  The  strangest  sight  of  Lahore  is 
its  new  railway  station — a  fortress  of  red  brick,  one  of 
many  which  are  rising  all  over  India.  The  fortification 
of  the  railway  stations  is  decidedly  the  next  best  step 
to  that  of  having  no  forts  at  all. 

The  city  of  Lahore  is  surrounded  by  a  suburb  of 
21* 


246  GBEATER    BRITAIN. 

great  tombs,  in  which  Europeans  have  in  many  cases 
taken  up  their  residence  by  permission  of  the  owner, 
the  mausoleums  being,  from  the  thickness  of  their 
walls,  as  cool  as  cellars.  Sometimes,  however,  a  fanat- 
ical relative  of  the  man  buried  in  the  tomb  will  warn 
the  European  tenant  that  he  will  die  within  a  year — a 
prophecy  which  poison  has  once  or  twice  brought  to 
its  fulfillment  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lahore  and  at 
Moultan. 

Strolling  in  the  direction  of  the  Cabool  Gate,  I  came 
on  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Punjaub,  driving 
in  an  open  carriage  drawn  by  camels  ;  and  passing  out 
on  to  the  plain,  I  met  all  the  officers  in  garrison  return- 
ing on  Persian  ponies  from  a  game  at  the  Afghan  sport 
of  "hockey  upon  horseback,"  while  a  little  farther 
were  some  English  ladies  with  hawks.  Throughout 
the  Northern  Punjaub  a  certain  settling  down  in  com- 
fort on  the  part  of  the  English  officials  is  to  be  re- 
marked, and  the  adaptation  of  native  habits  to  English 
uses,  of  which  I  had  in  one  evening's  walk  the  three 
examples  which  I  have  mentioned,  is  a  sign  of  a  tend- 
ency toward  that  making  the  best  of  things  which  in 
£,  newly-occupied  country  precedes  the  entrance  upon 
a  system  of  permanent  abode.  Lahore  has  been  a  Brit- 
ish city  for  nineteen  years,  Bombay  for  two  centuries 
and  more ;  yet  Lahore  is  far  more  English  than  Bombay. 

Although  there  are  as  yet  no  signs  of  English  settle- 
ment in  the  Punjaub,  still  the  official  community  in 
many  a  Punjaub  station  is  fast  becoming  colonial  in 
its  type,  and  Indian  traditions  are  losing  ground.  Eng- 
lish wives  and  sisters  abound  in  Lahore,  even  the  rail- 
way and  canal  officials  having  brought  out  their  fam- 
ilies ;  and  during  the  cool  weather  race  meetings,  drag 
hunts,  cricket  matches,  and  croquet  parties  follow  one 
another  from  day  to  day,  and  Lahore  boasts  a  volun- 


LAHORE.  247 

teer  corps.  When  the  hot  season  comes  on,  those  who 
can  escape  to  the  hills,  and  the  wives  and  children  of 
those  who  cannot  go,  run  to  Dalhousie,  as  Londoners 
do  to  Eastbourne. 

The  healthy  English  tone  of  the  European  communi- 
ties of  Uniritsur  and  Lahore  is  reflected  in  the  news- 
papers of  the  Punjaub,  which  are  the  best  in  India,  al- 
though the  blunders  of  the  native  printers  render  the 
"  betting  news"  unintelligible,  and  the  "  cricket  scores" 
obscure.  The  columns  of  the  Lahore  papers  present 
as  singular  a  mixture  of  incongruous  articles  as  even  the 
Government  Gazette  offers  to  its  readers.  An  official 
notice  that  it  will  be  impossible  to  allow  more  than 
560  elephants  to  take  part  in  the  next  Lucknow  pro- 
cession follows  a  report  of  the  "ice  meeting"  of  the 
community  of  Lahore,  to  arrange  about  the  next 
supply ;  and  side  by  side  with  this  is  an  article  on  the 
Punjaub  trade  with  Chinese  Tartary,  which  recom- 
mends the  government  of  India  to  conquer  Afghanis- 
tan, and  to  reoccupy  the  valley  of  Cashmere.  A  para- 
graph notices  the  presentation  by  the  Punjaub  govern- 
ment to  a  native  gentleman,  who  has  built  a  serai  at 
his  own  cost,  of  a  valuable  gift ;  another  records  a 
brush  with  the  Wagheers.  The  only  police  case  is  the 
infliction  on  a  sweeper  of  a  flne  of  thirty  rupees  for  let- 
ting his  donkey  run  against  a  high-caste  woman,  where- 
by she  was  defiled;  but  a  European  magistrate  repri- 
mands a  native  pleader  for  appearing  in  court  with  his 
shoes  on  ;  and  a  notice  from  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
gives  a  list  of  the  holidays  to  be  observed  by  the  courts, 
in  which  the  "  Queen's  Birthday"  comes  between 
"Bhudur  Kalee"  and  "  Oors  data  Gunjbuksh,"  while 
"Christmas"  follows  "Shubberat,"  and  "Ash  Wed- 
nesday" precedes  "Holee."  As  one  of  the  holidays 
lasts  a  fortnight,  and  many  more  than  a  week,  the  total 


248  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

number  of  dies  non  is  considerable;  but  a  postscript  de- 
crees that  additional  local  holidays  shall  be  granted  for 
fairs  and  festivals,  and  for  the  solar  and  lunar  eclipse, 
which  brings  the  no-court  days  up  to  sixty  or  seventy, 
besides  those  in  the  Long  Vacation.  The  Hindoos  are 
in  the  happy  position  of  having  also  six  new-year's 
days  in  every  twelvemonth ;  but  the  editor  of  one  of 
the  Lahore  papers  says  that  his  Mohammedan  com- 
positors manifest  a  singular  interest  in  Hindoo  feasts, 
which  shows  a  gratifying  spread  of  toleration !  An 
article  on  the  "Queen's  English  in  Hindostan,"  in  the 
Punjaub  Times,  gives,  as  a  specimen  of  the  poetry  of 
Young  Bengal,  a  serenade  in  which  the  skylark  carols 
on  the  primrose  bush.  "Emerge,  my  love,"  the  poet 
cries  • 

"  The  fragrant,  dewy  grove 
We'll  wander  through  till  gun-fire  bids  us  part." 

But  the  final  stanza  is  the  best: 

"  Then,  Leila,  come  !  nor  longer  cogitate  ; 
Thy  egress  let  no  scruples  dire  retard  ; 
Contiguous  to  the  portals  of  thy  gate 
Suspensively  I  supplicate  regard." 

The  advertisements  range  from  books  on  the  lan- 
guages of  Dardistan  to  government  contracts  for  ele- 
phant fodder,  or  price-lists  of  English  beer;  and  an 
announcement  of  an  Afghan  history  in  the  Urdu  tongue 
is  followed  by  a  prospectus  of  Berkhamstead  Gram- 
mar School.  King  Edward  would  rub  his  eyes  were 
he  to  wake  and  find  himself  being  advertised  in  La- 
hore. 

The  Punjaub  Europeans,  with  their  English  news- 
papers and  English  ways,  are  strange  governors  for  an 
empire  conquered  from  the  bravest  of  all  Eastern  races 
little  more  than  eighteen  years  ago.  One  of  them, 


OUR   INDIAN  ARMY.  249 

taking  up  a  town  policeman's  staff,  said  to  me,  one  day, 
"  Who  could  have  thought  in  1850  that  in  1867  we 
should  be  ruling  the  Sikhs  with  this  ?" 


CHAPTER    XII. 

OUK  INDIAN   ARMY. 

DURING  my  stay  in  Lahore,  a  force  of  Sikhs  and 
Pathans  was  being  raised  for  service  at  Hong  Kong  by 
an  officer  staying  in  the  same  hotel  with  myself,  and  a 
large  number  of  men  were  being  enlisted  in  the  city 
by  recruiting  parties  of  the  Bombay  army.  In  all 
parts  of  India,  we  are  now  relying,  so  far  as  our  native 
forces  are  concerned,  upon  the  men  who  only  a  few 
years  back  were  by  much  our  most  dangerous  foes. 

Throughout  the  East,  subjects  concern  themselves 
but  little  in  the  quarrels  of  their  princes,  and  the 
Sikhs  are  no  exception  to  the  rule.  They  fought  splen- 
didly in  the  Persian  ranks  at  Marathon ;  under  Shere 
Singh,  they  made  their  memorable  stand  at  Chillian- 
wallah;  but,  under  Nicholson,  they  beat  the  bravest 
of  the  Bengal  sepoys  before  Delhi.  Whether  they 
fight  for  us  or  against  us  is  all  one  to  them.  They  fight 
for  those  who  pay  them,  and  have  no  politics  beyond 
their  pockets.  So  far,  they  seem  useful  allies  to  us, 
who  hold  the  purse  of  India.  Unable  to  trust  Hin- 
doos with  arms,  we  can  at  least  rule  them  by  the  em- 
ployment as  soldiers  of  their  fiercest  enemies. 

When  we  come  to  look  carefully  at  our  system,  its 
morality  is  hardly  clear.  As  we  administer  the  reve- 
nues of  India,  nominally  at  least,  for  the  benefit  of  the 


250  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

Indians,  it  might  be  argued  that  we  may  fairly  keep 
on  foot  such  troops  as  are  best  fitted  to  secure  her 
against  attack ;  but  the  argument  breaks  down  when 
it  is  remembered  that  70,000  British  troops  are  main- 
tained in  India  from  the  Indian  revenues  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  that  local  order  is  secured  by  an  ample  force 
of  military  police.  Even  if  the  employment  of  Sikhs 
in  times  of  emergency  may  be  advisable,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  day  has  gone  by  for  permanently  over- 
awing a  people  by  means  of  standing  armies  composed 
of  their  hereditary  foes. 

In  discussing  the  question  of  the  Indian  armies,  we 
have  carefully  to  distinguish  between  the  theory  and 
the  practice.  The  Indian  official  theory  says  that  not 
only  is  the  native  army  a  valuable  auxiliary  to  the 
English  army  in  India,  but  that  its  moral  effect  on  the 
people  is  of  great  benefit  to  us,  inasmuch  as  it  raises 
their  self-respect,  and  offers  a  career  to  men  who  would 
otherwise  be  formidable  enemies.  The  practice  pro- 
claims that  the  native  troops  are  either  dangerous  or 
useless  by  arming  them  with  weapons  as  antiquated  as 
the  bow  and  arrow,  destroys  the  moral  effect  which 
might  possibly  be  produced  by  a  Hindoo  force  by  fill- 
ing the  native  ranks  with  Sikh  and  Goorkha  aliens  and 
heretics,  and  makes  us  enemies  without  number  by 
denying  to  natives  that  promotion  which  the  theory 
holds  out  to  them.  The  existing  system  is  officially 
defended  by  the  most  contradictory  arguments,  and  on 
the  most  shifting  of  grounds.  Those  who  ask  why  we 
should  not  trust  the  natives,  at  all  events  to  the  extent 
of  allowing  Bengal  and  Bombay  men  to  serve,  and  to 
serve  with  arms  that  they  can  use,  in  bodies  which 
profess  to  be  the  Bengal  and  Bombay  armies,  but  which 
in  fact  are  Sikh  regiments  which  we  are  afraid  to  arm, 
are  told  that  the  native  army  has  mutinied  times  with- 


OUR   INDIAN  ARMY.  251 

out  end,  that  it  has  never  fought  well  except  where, 
from  the  number  of  British  present,  it  had  no  choice 
but  to  fight,  and  that  it  is  dangerous  and  inefficient. 
Those  who  ask  why  this  shadow  of  a  native  army 
should  be  retained  are  told  that  its  records  of  distin- 
guished service  in  old  times  are  numerous  and  splen- 
did. The  huge  British  force  maintained  in  India,  and 
the  still  huger  native  army,  are  each  of  them  made  an 
excuse  for  the  retention  of  the  other  at  the  existing 
standard.  If  you  say  that  it  is  evident  that  70,000 
British  troops  cannot  be  needed  in  India,  you  are  told 
that  they  are  required  to  keep  the  120,000  native  troops 
in  check.  If  you  ask,  Of  what  use,  then,  are  the  lat- 
ter? you  hear  that  in  the  case  of  a  serious  imperial  war 
the  English  troops  would  be  withdrawn,  and  the  de- 
fense of  India  confided  to  these  very  natives  who  in 
time  of  peace  require  to  be  thus  severely  held  in  check. 
Such  shallow  arguments  would  be  instantly  exposed 
were  not  English  statesmen  bribed  by  the  knowledge 
that  their  acceptance  as  good  logic  allows  us  to  main- 
tain at  India's  cost  70,000  British  soldiers,  who  in  time 
of  danger  would  be  available  for  our  defense  at  home. 
That  the  English  force  of  70,000  men  maintained  in 
India  in  time  of  peace  can  be  needed  there  in  peace  or 
war  is  not  to  be  supposed  by  those  who  remember  that 
10,000  men  were  all  that  were  really  needed  to  suppress 
the  wide-spread  mutiny  of  1857,  and  that  Russia — our 
only  possible  enemy  from  without — never  succeeded 
during  a  two  years'  war  in  her  own  territory  in  placing 
a  disposable  army  of  60,000  men  in  the  Crimea. 
Another  mutiny  such  as  that  of  1857  is,  indeed,  impos- 
sible, now  that  we  retain  both  forts  and  artillery 
exclusively  in  British  hands ;  and  Russia,  having  to 
bring  her  supplies  and  men  across  almost  boundless 
deserts,  or  through  hostile  Afghanistan,  would  be  met 


252  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

at  the  Khyber  by  our  whole  Indian  army,  concentrated 
from  the  most  distant  stations  at  a  few  days'  notice, 
fighting  in  a  well-known  and  friendly  country,  and 
supplied  from  the  plains  of  all  India  by  the  railroads. 
Our  English  troops  in  India  are  sufficiently  numerous, 
were  it  necessary,  to  fight  both  the  Russians  and  our 
native'  army ;  but  it  is  absurd  that  we  should  maintain 
in  India,  in  a  time  of  perfect  peace,  at  a  yearly  cost  to 
the  people  of  that  country  of  from  fourteen  to  sixteen 
millions  sterling,  an  army  fit  to  cope  with  the  most 
tremendous  disasters  that  could  overtake  the  country, 
and  at  the  same  time  unspeakably  ridiculous  that  we 
should  in  all  our  calculations  be  forced  to  set  down  the 
native  army  as  a  cause  of  weakness.  The  native  rulers, 
moreover,  whatever  their  unpopularity  with  their 
people,  were  always  able  to  array  powerful  levies 
against  enemies  from  without;  and  if  our  government 
of  India  is  not  a  miserable  failure,  our  influence  over 
the  lower  classes  of  the  people  ought,  at  the  least,  to 
be  little  inferior  to  that  exercised  by  the  Mogul  emper- 
ors or  the  Maratta  chiefs. 

As  for  local  risings,  concentration  of  our  troops  by 
means  of  the  railroads  that  would  be  constructed  in 
half  a  dozen  years  out  of  our  military  savings  alone, 
and  which  American  experience  shows  us  cannot  be 
effectually  destroyed,  would  be  amply  sufficient  to 
deal  with  them  were  the  force  reduced  to  30,000  men; 
and  a  general  rebellion  o'f  the  people  of  India  we  have 
no  reason  to  expect,  and  no  right  to  resist  should  it  by 
any  combination  of  circumstances  be  brought  about. 

The  taxation  required  to  maintain  the  present  Indian 
army  presses  severely  upon  what  is  in  fact  the  poorest 
country  in  the  world ;  the  yearly  drain  of  many  thou- 
sand men  weighs  heavily  upon  us;  and  our  system 
seems  to  proclaim  to  the  world  the  humiliating  fact, 


OUR   INDIAN  ARMY.  253 

that  under  British  government,  and  in  times  of  peace, 
the  most  docile  of  all  peoples  need  an  army  of  200,000 
men,  in  addition  to  the  military  police,  to  watch  them, 
or  keep  them  down. 

Whatever  the  decision  come  to  with  regard  to  the 
details  of  the  changes  to  be  made  in  the  Indian  army 
system,  it  is  at  least  clear  that  it  will  be  expedient  in 
us  to  reduce  the  English  army  in  India  if  we  intend  it 
for  India's  defense,  and  our  duty  to  abolish  it  if  we  in- 
tend it  for  our  own.  It  is  also  evident  that,  after  allow- 
ing for  mere  police  duties — which  should  in  all  cases 
be  performed  by  men  equipped  as,  and  called  by  the 
name  of,  police — the'  native  army  should,  whatever  its 
size,  be  rendered  as  effective  as  possible,  by  instruc- 
tion in  the  use  of  the  best  weapons  of  the  age.  If 
local  insurrections  have  unfortunately  to  be  quelled, 
they  must  be  quelled  by  English  troops;  and  against 
European  invaders,  native  troops,  to  be  of  the  slightest 
service,  must  be  armed  as  Europeans.  As  the  pos- 
sibility of  European  invasion  is  remote,  it  would  proba- 
bly be  advisable  that  the  native  army  should  be  gradu- 
ally reduced  until  brought  to  the  point  of  merely 
supplying  the  body-guards  and  ceremonial-troops;  at 
all  events,  the  practice  of  overawing  Sikhs  with  Hin- 
doos, and  Hindoos  with  Sikhs,  should  be  abandoned 
as  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  our  government  in 
India,  and  with  the  first  principles  of  freedom. 

There  is,  however,  no  reason  why  we  should  wholly 
deprive  ourselves  of  the  services  of  the  Indian  warrior 
tribes.  If  we  are  to  continue  to  hold  such  outposts 
as  Gibraltar,  the  duty  of  defending  them  against  all 
comers  might  not  improperly  be  intrusted  wholly  or 
partly  to  the  Sikhs  or  fiery  little  Goorkhas,  on  the 
ground  that,  while  almost  as  brave  as  European  troops, 
they  are  somewhat  cheaper.  It  is  possible,  indeed, 
VOL.  ii.  22 


254  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

that,  just  as  we  draw  our  Goorkbas  from  independent 
Nepaiil,  other  European  nations  may  draw  Sikhs  from 
us.  We  are  not  even  now  the  only  rulers  who  employ 
Sikhs  in  war;  the  Khan  of  Kokand  is  said  to  have 
many  in  his  service:  and,  tightly  ruled  at  home,  the 
Punjaubees  may  not  improbably  become  the  Swiss  of 
Asia. 

Whatever  the  European  force  to  be  maintained  in 
India,  it  is  clear  that  it  should  be  local.  The  Queen's 
army  system  has  now  had  ten  years'  trial,  and  has 
failed  in  every  point  in  which  failure  was  prophesied. 
The  officers,  hating  India,  and  having  no  knowledge 
of  native  languages  or  customs,  bring  our  government 
into  contempt  among  the  people;  recruits  in  England 
dread  enlistment  for  service  they  know  not  where; 
and  Indian  tax-payers  complain  that  they  are  forced 
to  support  an  army  over  the  disposition  of  which  they 
have  not  the  least  control,  and  which  in  time  of  need 
would  probably  be  withdrawn  from  India.  Even  the 
Dutch,  they  say,  maintain  a  purely  colonial  force  in 
Java,  and  the  French  have  pledged  themselves  that, 
when  they  withdraw  the  Algerian  local  troops,  they 
will  replace  them  by  regiments  of  the  line.  England 
and  Spain  alone  maintain  purely  imperial  troops  at 
the  expense  of  their  dependencies. 

Were  the  European  army  in  India  kept  separate  from 
the  English  service,  it  would  be  at  once  less  costly  and 
more  efficient,  while  the  officers  would  be  acquainted 
with  the  habits  of  the  natives  and  customs  of  the 
country,  and  not,  as  at  present,  mere  birds  of  passage, 
careless  of  offending  native  prejudice,  indifferent  to 
the  feelings  of  those  among  whom  they  have  to  live, 
and  occupied  each  day  of  their  idle  life  in  heartily 
wishing  themselves  at  home  again.  There  are,  indeed, 
to  the  existing  system  drawbacks  more  serious  than 


RUSSIA.  255 

have  been  mentioned.  Sufficient  stress  has  not  hith erto 
been  laid  upon  the  demoralization  of  our  army  and 
danger  to  our  home  freedom  that  must  result  from  the 
keeping  in  India  of  half  our  regular  force.  It  is  hard 
to  believe  that  men  who  have  periodically  to  go  through 
such  scenes  as  those  of  1857,  or  who  are  in  daily  con- 
tact with  a  cringing  dark-skinned  race,  can  in  the  long 
run  continue  to  be  firm  friends  to  constitutional  liberty 
at  home ;  and  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  English 
troops  in  India,  though  under  the  orders  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  are  practically  independent  of  the 
House  of  Commons. 

It  is  not  only  constitutionally  that  Indian  rotation 
service  is  bad.  The  system  is  destructive  to  the  dis- 
cipline of  our  troops,  and  a  separate  service  is  the  only 
remedy. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

E  U  S  S  I  A. 

FOR  fifty  years  or  more,  we  have  been  warned  that 
one  day  we  must  encounter  Russia,  and  for  fifty  years 
Muscovite  armies,  conquering  their  way  step  by  step, 
have  been  advancing  southward,  till  we  find  England 
and  Russia  now  ail-but  face  to  face  in  Central  Asia. 

Steadily  the  Russians  are  advancing.  Their  circular 
of  1864,  in  which  they  declared  that  they  had  reached 
their  wished-for  frontier,  has  been  altogether  forgotten, 
and  all  Kokand,  and  portions  of  Bokhara,  have  been 
swallowed  up,  while  our  spies  in  St.  Petersburg  tell  the 
Indian  Council  that  Persia  herself  is  doomed.  Al- 


256  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

though,  however,  the  distance  of  the  Russian  from  the 
English  frontiers  has  been  greatly  reduced  of  late,  it  is 
still  far  more  considerable  than  is  supposed.  Instead 
of  the  Russian  outposts  being  100  miles  from  Peshawur, 
as  one  alarmist  has  said,  they  are  still  400 ;  and  Samar- 
cand,  their  nearest  city,  is  450  miles  in  a  straight  line 
over  the  summit  of  the  Hindoo  Koosh,  and  750  by  road 
from  our  frontier  at  the  Khyber.  At  the  same  time, 
we  must,  in  our  calculations  of  the  future,  assume  that, 
a  few  years  will  see  Russia  at  the  northern  base  of  the 
Hindoo  Koosh,  and  in  a  position  to  overrun  Persia 
and  take  Herat. 

It  has  been  proposed  that  we  should  declare  to  Rus- 
sia our  intention  to  preserve  Afghanistan  as  neutral 
ground ;  but  there  arises  this  difficulty,  that,  having 
agreed  to  this  plan,  Russia  would  immediately  proceed 
to  set  about  ruling  Afghanistan  through  Persia.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible,  as  we  have  already 
found,  to  treat  with  Afghanistan,  as  there  is  no  Afghan- 
istan with  which  to  treat ;  nor  can  we  enter  into  friendly 
relations  with  any  Afghan  chief,  lest  his  neighbor  and 
enemy  should  hold  us  responsible  for  his  acts.  If  we 
are  to  have  any  dealings  with  the  Afghans,  we  shall 
soon  be  forced  to  take  a  side,  and  necessarily  to  fight 
and  conquer,  but  at  a  great  cost  in  men  and  money. 
It  might  be  possible  to  make  friends  of  some  of  the 
frontier  tribes  by  giving  them  lands  within  our  borders 
on  condition  of  their  performing  military  service  and 
respecting  the  lives  and  property  of  our  merchants ;  but. 
the  policy  would  be  costly,  and  its  results  uncertain, 
while  we  should  probably  soon  find  ourselves  embroiled 
in  Afghan  politics.  Moreover,  meddling  in  Afghan- 
istan, long  since  proved  to  be  a  foolish  and  a  danger- 
ous course,  can  hardly  be  made  a  wise  one  by  the  fact 
of  the  Russians  being  at  the  gate. 


RUSSIA.  257 

Many  would  have  us  advance  to  Herat,  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  in  Afghanistan,  and  not  on  the  plains  of  In- 
dia, that  Russia  must  be  met ;  but  such  is  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  Afghans,  such  the  poverty  of  their  country, 
that  its  occupation  would  be  at  once  a  source  of  weak- 
ness and  a  military  trap  to  the  invader.  Were  we  to 
occupy  Herat,  we  should  have  Persians  and  Afghans 
alike  against  us ;  were  the  Russians  to  annex  Afghan- 
istan, they  could  never  descend  into  the  plains  of  India 
without  a  little  diplomacy,  or  a  little  money  from  us, 
bringing  the  Afghan  fanatics  upon  their  rear.  When, 
indeed,  we  look  carefully  into  the  meaning  of  those 
Anglo-Indians  who  would  have  us  repeat  our  attempt 
to  thrash  the  Afghans  into  loving  us,  w^e  find  that  the 
pith  of  their  complaint  seems  to  be  that  battles  and  con- 
quests mean  promotion,  and  that  we  have  no  one  left 
in  India  upon  whom  we  can  wage  war.  Civilians  look 
for  new  appointments,  military  men  for  employment, 
missionaries  for  fresh  fields,  and  all  see  their  opening 
in  annexation,  while  the  newspapers  echo  the  cry  of 
their  readers,  and  call  on  the  Viceroy  to  annex  Afghan- 
istan "at  the  cost  of  impeachment." 

Were  our  frontier  at  Peshawur  a  good  one  for  defense, 
there  could  be  but  little  reason  shown  for  an  occupation 
of  any  part  of  Afghanistan ;  but,  as  it  is,  the  question 
of  the  desirability  of  an  advance  is  complicated  by  the 
lamentable  weakness  of  our  present  frontier.  Were 
Russia  to  move  down  upon  India,  we  should  have  to 
meet  her  either  in  Afghanistan  or  upon  the  Indus :  to 
meet  her  at  Peshawur,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains 
and  with  the  Indus  behind  us,  would  be  a  military 
suicide.  Of  the  two  courses  that  would  be  open  to  us, 
a  retreat  to  the  Indus  would  be  a  terrible  blow  to  the 
confidence  of  our  troops,  and  an  advance  to  Cabool  or 
Herat  would  be  an  advance  out  of  reach  of  our  railroad 

22* 


258  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

communications,  and  through  a  dangerous  defile.  To 
maintain  our  frontier  force  at  Peshawur,  as  we  now  do, 
is  to  maintain  in  a  pestilential  valley  a  force  which,  if 
attacked,  could  not  fight  where  it  is  stationed,  but 
would  be  forced  to  advance  into  Afghanistan  or  retreat 
to  the  Indus.  The  best  policy  would  probably  be  to 
withdraw  the  Europeans  from  Peshawur  and  Rawul 
Pindee,  and  place  them  upon  the  Indus  in  the  hills 
near  Attock,  completing  our  railroad  from  Attock  to 
Lahore  and  from  Attock  to  the  hill  station,  and  to 
leave  the  native  force  to  defend  the  Khyber  and  Pesha- 
wur against  the  mountain  tribes.  We  should  also 
encourage  European  settlement  in  the  valley  of  Cash- 
mere. On  the  other  hand,  we  should  push  a  short 
railroad  from  the  Indus  to  the  Bholau  Pass,  and  there 
concentrate  a  second  powerful  European  force,  with  a 
view  to  resisting  invasion  at  that  point,  and  of  taking 
in  flank  and  rear  any  invader  who  might  advance  upon 
the  Khyber.  The  Bholan  Pass  is,  moreover,  on  the 
road  to  Candahar  and  Herat;  and,  although  it  would 
be  a  mistake  to  occupy  those  cities  except  by  the  wish 
of  the  Afghans,  still  the  advance  of  the  Russians  will 
probably  one  day  force  the  Afghans  to  ally  themselves 
to  us  and  solicit  the  occupation  of  their  cities.  The 
fact  that  the  present  ruler  of  Herat  is  a  mere  tool  of 
the  Persians  or  feudatory  of  the  Czar  will  have  no 
effect  whatever  on  his  country,  for  if  he  once  threw 
himself  openly  into  Russian  hands  his  people  would 
immediately  desert  him.  So  much  for  the  means  of 
defense  against  the  Russians,  but  there  is  some  chance 
that  we  may  have  to  defend  India  against  another 
Mohammedan  invasion,  secretly  countenanced,  but  not 
openly  aided,  by  Russia.  While  on  my  way  to  England, 
I  had  a  conversation  on  this  matter  with  a  well-informed 
Syrian  Pacha,  but  notorious  Russian-hater.  He  had 


RUSSIA.  259 

been  telling  me  that  Russian  policy  had  not  changed, 
but  was  now,  as  ever,  a  policy  of  gradual  annexation ; 
that  she  envied  our  position  in  India,  and  hated  us 
because  our  gentle  treatment  of  Asiatics  is  continually 
held  up  to  her  as  an  example.  "Russia  has  attacked 
you  twice  in  India,  and  will  attack  you  there  again," 
he  said.  Admitting  her  interference  in  the  Afghan 
war,  I  denied  that  it  was  proved  that  she  had  any  in- 
fluence in  Hindostan,  or  any  hand  in  the  rebellion  of 
1857.  My  friend  made  me  no  spoken  answer,  but 
took  four  caskets  that  stood  upon  the  table,  and,  set- 
ting them  in  a  row,  with  an  interval  between  them, 
pushed  the  first  so  that  it  struck  the  second,  the  second 
the  third,  and  the  third  the  fourth.  Then,  looking  up, 
he  said,  "  There  you  have  the  manner  of  the  Russian 
move  on  India.  I  push  ISTo.  1,  but  you  see  ISTo.  4 
moves.  1  influences  2,  2  influences  3,  and  3  influences 
4;  but  1  doesn't  influence  4.  Oh,  dear  me,  no!  Very 
likely  even  1  and  3  are  enemies,  and  hate  each  other; 
and  if  3  thought  that  she  was  doing  1's  work,  she 
would  kick  over  the  traces  at  once.  Nevertheless,  she 
is  doing  it.  In  1857,  Russia  certainly  struck  at  you 
through  Egypt,  and  probably  through  Central  Asia 
also.  Lord  Palmerston  was  afraid  to  send  troops 
through  Egypt,  though,  if  that  could  have  been  largely 
done,  the  mutiny  could  have  been  put  down  in  half 
the  time,  and  with  a  quarter  the  cost;  and  Nana  Sahib, 
in  his  proclamation,  stated,  not  without  reason,  that 
Egypt  was  on  his  side.  The  way  you  are  being  now 
attacked  is  this: — Russia  and  Egypt  are  for  the  mo- 
ment hand  and  glove,  though  their  ultimate  objects 
are  conflicting.  Egypt  is  playing  for  the  leadership  of 
all  Islam,  even  of  Moslems  in  Central  Asia  and  India. 
Russia  sees  that  this  game  is  for  the  time  her  game,  as 
through  Egypt  she  can  excite  the  Turcomans,  Afghans, 


260  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

and  other  Moslems  of  Central  Asia  to  invade  India  in 
the  name  of  religion  and  the  Prophet,  but,  in  fact,  in 
the  hope  of  plunder,  and  can  also  at  the  same  time 
raise  your  Mohammedan  population  in  Hindostan — a 
population  over  which  you  admit  you  have  absolutely 
no  hold.  Of  course  you  will  defeat  these  hordes  when- 
ever you  meet  them  in  the  field ;  but  their  numbers 
are  incalculable,  and  their  bravery  great.  India  has 
twice  before  been  conquered  from  the  north,  from 
Central  Asia,  and  you  must  remember  that  behind 
these  hordes  comes  Russia  herself.  Mohammedanism 
is  weak  here,  on  the  Mediterranean,  I  grant  you ;  but 
it  is  very  strong  in  Central  Asia — as  strong  as  it  ever 
was.  Can  you  trust  your  Sikhs,  too  ?  I  doubt  it." 

When  I  asked  the  Pacha  how  Egypt  was  to  put  her- 
self at  the  head  of  Islam,  he  answered : — "  Thus.  We 
Egyptians  are  already  supporting  the  Turkish  empire. 
Our  tribute  is  a  million  (francs),  but  we  pay  five  mil- 
lions, of  which  four  go  into  the  Sultan's  privy  purse. 
We  have  all  the  leading  men  of  Turkey  in  our  pay: 
30,000  of  the  best  troops  serving  in  Crete,  and  the 
whole  of  the  fleet,  are  contributed  by  Egypt.  Now, 
Egypt  had  no  small  share  in  getting  up  the  Cretan 
insurrection,  and  yet,  you  see,  she  does,  or  pretends  to 
do,  her  best  to  put  it  down.  The  Sultan,  therefore,  is 
at  the  Viceroy's  mercy,  if  you  don't  interfere.  No  one 
else  will  if  you  do  not.  The  Viceroy  aims  at  being 
nominally,  as  he  is  really,  '  the  Grand  Turk.'  Once 
Sultan,  with  Crete  and  the  other  islands  handed  over 
to  Greece  or  Russia,  the  present  Viceroy  commands 
the  allegiance  of  every  Moslem  people — thirty  millions 
of  your  Indian  subjects  included :  that  is,  practically 
Russia  commands  that  allegiance — Russia  practically, 
though  not  nominally,  at  Constantinople  wields  the 
power  of  Islam,  instead  of  being  hated  by  every  true 


EUSSIA.  261 

believer,  as  she  would  be  if  she  annexed  Turkey  in 
Europe.  Her  real  game  is  a  far  grander  one  than  that 
with  which  she  is  credited."  "  Turkey  is  your  vassal," 
the  Pacha  went  on  to  say;  "she  owes  her  existence 
entirely  to  you.  Why  not  use  her,  then?  Why  not 
put  pressure  on  the  Sultan  to  exert  his  influence  over 
the  Asian  tribes — which  is  far  greater  than  you  believe 
— for  your  benefit  ?  Why  not  insist  on  your  Euphrates 
route?  Why  not  insist  on  Egypt  ceasing  to  intrigue 
against  you,  and  annex  the  country  if  she  continues 
in  her  present  course?  If  you  wish  to  bring  matters 
to  a  crisis,  make  Abdul  Aziz  insist  on  Egypt  being 
better  governed,  or  on  the  slave-trade  being  put  down. 
You  have  made  your  name  a  laughing-stock  here. 
You  let  Egypt  half  bribe,  half  force  Turkey  into 
throwing  such  obstacles  in  the  way  of  your  Euphrates 
route  that  it  is  no  nearer  completion  now  than  it  ever 
was.  You  force  Egypt  to  pass  a  law  abolishing  the 
slave-trade  and  slavery  itself,  and  you  have  taken  no 
notice  of  the  fact  that  this  law  has  never  been  enforced 
in  so  much  as  a  single  instance.  You  think  that  you 
are  all  right  now  that  you  have  managed  to  force  our 
government  into  allowing  your  troops  to  pass  to  and 
fro  through  Egypt,  thus  making  your  road  through  the 
territory  of  your  most  dangerous  enemy.  Where  would 
you  be  in  case  of  a  war  with  Russia?" 

When  I  pleaded  that,  if  we  were  refused  passage,  we 

.t  ?  .t  O      / 

should  occupy  the  country,  the  Pacha  replied :  "  Of 
course  you  would;  but  you  need  not  imagine  that 
you  will  ever  be  refused  passage.  What  will  happen 
will  be  that,  just  at  the  time  of  your  greatest  need,  the 
floods  will  come  down  from  the  mountains  and  wash 
away  ten  miles  of  the  line,  and  all  the  engines  will  go 
out  of  repair.  You  will  complain :  we  shall  offer  to 
lay  the  stick  about  the  feet  of  all  the  employes  of  the 


262  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

line.  "What  more  would  you  have  ?  Can  we  prevent 
the  floods?  When  our  government  wished  to  keep 
your  Euphrates  scheme  from  coming  to  anything,  did 
they  say :  '  Do  this  thing,  and  we  will  raise  Islam  against 
you '  ?  Oh  no !  they  just  bribed  your  surveyors  to  be 
attacked  by  the  Bedouin,  or  they  bribed  a  pacha  to  tell 
you  that  the  water  was  alkaline  and  poisonous  for  the 
next  hundred  miles,  and  so  on,  till  your  company  was 
ruined,  and  the  plan  at  an  end  for  some  years.  Your 
home  government  does  not  understand  us  Easterns. 
Why  don't  you  put  your  Eastern  affairs  into  the  hands 
of  your  Indian  government?  You  have  two  routes  to 
India — Egypt  and  Euphrates  valley,  and  both  are  prac- 
tically in  the  hands  of  your  only  great  enemy — Russia." 
In  all  that  my  Syrian  friend  said  of  the  danger 
of  our  relying  too  much  upon  our  route  across  Egypt, 
and  on  the  importance  to  us  of  the  immediate  con- 
struction of  the  Euphrates  Valley  Railway  line,  there 
is  nothing  but  truth ;  but,  in  his  fears  of  a  fresh  in- 
vasion of  India  by  the  Mohammedans,  he  forgot  that 
for  fighting  purposes  the  Mohammedans  are  no  longer 
one,  but  two  peoples;  for  the  Moslem  races  are 
divided  into  Sonnites  and  Shiites,  or  orthodox  and 
dissenting  Mohammedans,  who  hate  each  other  far 
more  fiercely  than  they  hate  us.  Our  Indian  Moslems 
are  orthodox,  the  Afghans  and  Persians  are  dissenters, 
the  Turks  are  orthodox.  If  Egypt  and  Persia  play 
Russia's  game,  we  may  count  upon  the  support  of  the 
Turks  of  Syria,  of  the  Euphrates  valley,  and  of  India. 
To  unite  Irish  Catholics  and  Orangemen  in  a  religious 
crusade  against  the  English  would  be  an  easy  task  by 
the  side  of  that  of  uniting  Sonnite  and  Shiite  against 
India.  A  merely  Shiite  invasion  is  always  possible, 
but  could  probably  be  met  with  ease,  by  opposition  at 
the  Khyber,  and  resistance  upon  the  Indus,  followed 


EUSSIA.  263 

by  a  rapid  advance  from  the  Bholan.  Russia  herself 
is  not  without  her  difficulties  with  the  strictest  and 
most  fanatical  Mohammedans.  Now  that  she  has  con- 
quered Bokhara,  their  most  sacred  land,  they  hate 
her  as  fiercely  as  they  hate  us.  The  crusade,  if  she 
provokes  it,  may  be  upon  our  side,  and  British  com- 
manders in  green  turbans  may  yet  summon  the  Faith- 
ful to  arms,  and  invoke  the  Prophet. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  men  who  have  lived  long 
in  India  think  that  our  policy  in  the  East  has  over- 
whelming claims  on  the  attention  of  our  home  authori- 
ties. Not  only  is  Eastern  business  to  be  performed, 
and  Eastern  intrigues  watched  carefully,  but,  accord- 
ing to  these  Indian  flies,  who  think  that  their  Eastern 
cart-wheel  is  the  world,  Oriental  policy  is  to  guide 
home  policy,  to  dictate  our  European  friendships,  to 
cause  our  wars. 

No  Englishman  in  England  can  sympathize  with 
the  ridiculous  inability  to  comprehend  our  real  posi- 
tion in  India  which  leads  many  Anglo-Indians  to  cry 
out  that  we  must  go  to  war  with  Russia  to  "keep  up 
our  prestige;"  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  need  hardly 
be  shown  that,  apart  from  the  extension  of  trade  and 
the  improvement  of  communication,  we  need  not 
trouble  ourselves  with  alliances  to  strengthen  us  in  the 
East.  Supported  by  the  native  population,  we  can 
maintain  ourselves  in  India  against  the  world;  unsup- 
ported by  them,  our  rule  is  morally  indefensible,  and 
therefore  not  long  to  be  retained  by  force  of  arms. 

The  natives  of  India  watch  with  great  interest  the 
advance  of  Russia ;  not  that  they  believe  that  they 
would  be  any  better  off  under  her  than  under  us,  but 
that  they  would  like,  at  all  events,  to  see  some  one 
thrash  us,  even  if  in  the  end  they  lost  by  it;  just  as  a 
boy  likes  to  see  a  new  bully  thrash  his  former  master, 


264  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

even  though  the  later  be  also  the  severer  tyrant. 
That  the  great  body  of  the  people  of  India  watch 
with  feverish  excitement  the  advance  of  Russia  is 
seen  from  the  tone  of  the  native  press,  which  is  also  of 
service  to  us  in  demonstrating  that  the  mass  of  the 
Hindoos  are  incapable  of  appreciating  the  benefits, 
and  even  of  comprehending  the  character,  of  our  rule. 
They  can  understand  the  strength  which  a  steady 
purpose  gives;  they  cannot  grasp  the  principles  which 
lie  at  the  root  of  our  half-mercantile,  half-benevolent 
despotism. 

No  native  believes  that  we  shall  permanently  remain 
in  India;  no  native  really  sympathized  with  us  during 
the  rebellion.  To  the  people  of  India  we  English  are 
a  mystery.  We  profess  to  love  them,  and  to  be  edu- 
cating them  for  something  they  cannot  comprehend, 
which  we  call  freedom  and  self-government;  in  the 
mean  time,  while  we  do  not  plunder  them,  nor  con- 
vert them  forcibly,  after  the  wont  of  the  Mogul 
emperors,  we  kick  and  cuff  them  all  round,  and 
degrade  the  nobles  by  ameliorating  the  condition  of 
humbler  men. 

No  mere  policy  of  disarmament  or  of  oppression  can 
be  worth  much  as  a  system  for  securing  lasting  peace, 
for  if  our  Irish  constabulary  cannot  prevent  the  intro- 
duction of  Fenian  arms  to  Cork  and  Dublin,  how 
doubly  impossible  must  it  be  to  guard  a  frontier  of 
five  or  six  thousand  miles  by  means  of  a  police  force 
which  itself  cannot  be  trusted!  That  prolonged  dis- 
armament causes  our  subjects  to  forget  the  art  of  war 
is  scarcely  true,  and  if  true  would  tell  both  ways. 
The  question  is  not  one  of  disarmament,  and  suppres- 
sion of  rebellion :  it  is  that  of  whether  we  can  raise  up 
in  India  a  people  that  will  support  our  rule;  and  if 
this  is  to  be  done,  there  must  be  an  end  of  cuffing. 


EUSSIA.  265 

Were  the  Hindoos  as  capable  of  appreciating  the 
best  points  of  our  government  as  they  are  of  pointing 
out  the  worst,  we  should  have  nothing  to  fear  in  com- 
parison with  Russia.  Drunken,  dirty,  ignorant,  and 
corrupt,  the  Russian  people  are  no  lit  rulers  for  Hin- 
dostan.  Were  our  rival  that  which  she  pretends  to 
be, — a  civilized  European  Power  with  "a  mission"  in 
the  East;  were  she  even,  indeed,  an  enlightened  com- 
mercial Power,  with  sufficiently  benevolent  instincts 
but  with  no  policy  outside  her  pocket,  such  as  England 
was  till  lately  in  the  East,  and  is  still  in  the  Pacific, — 
we  might  find  ourselves  able  to  meet  her  with  open 
arms,  and  to  bring  ourselves  to  believe  that  her  ad- 
vance into  Southern  Asia  was  a  gain  to  mankind.  As 
it  is,  the  Russians  form  a  barbarous  horde,  ruled  by  a 
German  emperor  and  a  German  ministry,  who,  how- 
ever, are  as  little  able  to  suppress  degrading  drunken- 
ness and  shameless  venality  as  they  are  themselves 
desirous  of  promoting  true  enlightenment  and  educa- 
tion. " Talk  of  Russian  civilization  of  the  East!"  an 
Egyptian  once  said  to  me;  "why,  Russia  is  an  organ- 
ized barbarism;  why — the  Russians  are — why  they 
are — why — nearly  as  bad  as  we  are !"  It  should  be 
remembered,  too,  that  Russia,  being  herself  an  Asiatic 
power,  can  never  introduce  European  civilization  into 
Asia.  All  the  cry  of  "Russia!  Russia!"  all  this 
magnifying  of  the  Russian  power,  only  means  that,  the 
English  being  the  strong  men  most  hated  by  the  weak 
men  of  Southern  Asia,  the  name  of  the  next  strongest 
is  used  to  terrify  them.  The  offensive  strength  of 
Russia  has  been  grossly  exaggerated  by  alarmists,  who 
forget  that,  if  Russia  is  to  be  strong  in  Bokhara  and 
Khiva,  it  will  be  Bokharan  and  Khivau  strength.  In 
all  our  arguments  we  assume  that  with  three-fourths 
of  her  power  in  Asia,  and  with  her  armies  composed 
VOL.  n.  23 


266  GEEATEE   BEITAIN. 

of  Asians,  Russia  will  remain  a  European  Power.  What- 
ever the  composition  of  her  forces,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  India  is  not  a  stronger  empire  than  her  new 
neighbor.  The  military  expenditure  of  India  is  equal 
to  that  of  Russia ;  the  homogeneousness  of  the  North- 
ern Power  is  at  the  best  inferior  to  that  of  India; 
India  has  twice  the  population  of  Russia,  five  times 
her  trade,  and  as  large  a  revenue.  To  the  miserable 
military  administration  of  Russia,  Afghanistan  would 
prove  a  second  Caucasus,  and  by  their  conduct  we  see 
that  the  Afghans  themselves  are  not  terrified  by  her 
advance.  The  people  with  whom  an  Asiatic  prince 
seeks  alliances  are  not  those  whom  he  most  fears. 
That  the  Afghans  are  continually  intriguing  with 
Russia  against  us,  merely  means  that  they  fear  us 
more  than  they  fear  Russia. 

Russia  will  one  day  find  herself  encountering  the 
English  or  Americans  in  China,  perhaps,  but  not  upon 
the  plains  of  Hindostan.  Wherever  and  whenever  the 
contest  comes,  it  can  have  but  one  result.  Whether 
upon  India  or  on  England  falls  the  duty  of  defense, 
Russia  must  be  beaten.  A  country  that  was  fifty  years 
conquering  the  Caucasus,  and  that  could  never  place  a 
disposable  force  of  60,000  men  in  the  Crimea,  need 
give  no  fear  to  India,  while  her  grandest  offensive 
efforts  would  be  ridiculed  by  America,  or  by  the  Eng- 
land of  to-day.  To  meet  Russia  in  the  way  that  we 
are  asked  to  meet  her  means  to  meet  her  by  corrup- 
tion, and  a  system  of  meddling  Eastern  diplomacy  is 
proposed  to  us  which  is  revolting  to  our  English  na- 
ture. Let  us  by  all  means  go  our  own  way,  and  let 
Russia  go  hers.  If  we  try  to  meet  the  Russian  Ori- 
entals with  craft,  we  shall  be  defeated;  let  us  meet 
them,  therefore,  with  straightforwardness  and  friend- 
ship, but,  if  necessary,  in  arms. 


NATIVE  STATES.  267 

It  is  not  Russia  that  we  need  dread,  but,  by  the  de- 
struction of  the  various  nationalities  in  Hindostan  by 
means  of  centralization  and  of  railroads,  we  have 
created  an  India  which  we  cannot  tight.  India  her- 
self, not  Russia,  is  our  danger,  and  our  task  is  rather 
to  conciliate  than  to  conquer. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

NATIVE    STATES. 

QUITTING  Lahore  at  night,  I  traveled  to  Moultan  by 
a  railway  which  has  names  for  its  stations  such  as 
India  cannot  match.  Chunga-Munga,  Wanrasharam, 
Cheechawutnee,  and  Chunnoo,  follow  one  another  in 
that  order.  During  the  night,  when  I  looked  out  into 
the  still  moonlight,  I  saw  only  desert,  and  trains  of 
laden  camels  pacing  noiselessly  over  the  waste  sands ; 
but  in  the  morning  I  found  that  the  whole  country 
within  eye-shot  was  a  howling  wilderness.  Moultan, 
renowned  in  warlike  history  from  Alexander's  time  to 
ours,  stands  upon  the  edge  of  the  great  sandy  tract 
once  known  as  the  "Desert  of  the  Indies."  In  every 
village,  bagpipes  were  playing  through  the  livelong 
night.  There  are  many  resemblances  to  the  Gaelic 
races  to  be  found  in  India;  the  Hindoo  girl's  saree  is 
the  plaid  of  the  Gal  way  peasantess,  or  of  the  Tron- 
gate  fishwife;  many  of  the  hill-tribes  wear  the  kilt; 
but  the  Punjaubee  pipes  are  like  those  of  the  Italian 
pfiferari  rather  than  those  of  the  Scotch  Highlander. 

.  The  great  sandy  desert  which  lies  between  the  Indus 
and  Rajpootana  has,  perhaps,  a  future  under  British 


268  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

rule.  Wherever  snowy  mountains  are  met  with  in 
warm  countries,  yearly  floods,  the  product  of  the 
thaws,  sweep  down  the  rivers  that  take  their  rise  in 
the  glaciers  of  the  chain,  and  the  Indus  is  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule.  Were  the  fall  less  great,  the  stream 
less  swift,  Scinde  would  have  been  another  Cambodia, 
another  Egypt.  As  it  is,  the  fertilizing  floods  pour 
through  the  deep  river-bed  instead  of  covering  the 
land,  and  the  silt  is  wasted  on  the  Arabian  Gulf.  No 
native  State  with  narrow  boundaries  can  deal  with  the 
great  works  required  for  irrigation  on  the  scale  that 
can  alone  succeed;  but,  possessing  as  we  do  the  coun- 
try from  the  defiles  whence  the  five  rivers  escape  into 
the  plains  to  the  sandy  bars  at  which  they  lose  them- 
selves in  the  Indian  Seas,  we  might  convert  the  Pun- 
jaub  and  Scinde  into  a  garden  which  should  support  a 
happy  population  of  a  hundred  millions,  reared  under 
our  rule,  and  the  best  of  bulwarks  against  invasion 
from  the  north  and  west. 

At  Umritsur  I  had  seen  those  great  canals  that  are 
commencing  to  irrigate  and  fertilize  the  vast  deserts 
that  stretch  to  Scinde.  At  Jullundur  I  had  already 
seen  their  handiwork  in  the  fields  of  cotton,  tobacco, 
and  wheat  that  blossom  in  the  middle  of  a  wilderness; 
and  if  the  whole  Punjaub  and  Indus  valley  can  be  made 
what  Jullundur  is,  no  outlay  can  be  too  costly  a  means 
to  such  an  end.  There  can  be  no  reason  why,  with 
irrigation,  the  Indus  valle}r  should  not  become  as  fer- 
tile as  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 

After  admiring  in  Moultan,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
grandeur  of  the  citadel  which  still  shows  signs  of  the 
terrible  bombardment  which  it  suffered  at  our  hands 
after  the  murder  by  the  Sikhs  of  Mr.  Van  Agnew  in 
1848,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  modesty  of  the  sensi- 
tive mimosa  which  grows  plentifully  about  the  city,  I 


NATIVE    STATES.  269 

set  off  by  railway  for  Slier  Shah,  the  point  at  which 
the  railway  comes  to  its  end  upon  the  banks  of  the 
united  Jhelum  and  Chenab,  two  of  the  rivers  of  the 
Punjaub.  The  railway  company  once  built  a  station 
on  the  river-bank  at  Sher  Shah,  but  the  same  summer, 
when  the  floods  came  down,  station  and  railway  alike 
disappeared  into  the  Indus.  Embanking  the  river  is 
impossible,  from  the  cost  of  the  works  which  would  be 
needed;  and  building  wing-dams  has  been  tried,  with 
the  remarkable  effect  of  sending  off  the  river  at  right 
angles  to  the  dam  to  devastate  the  country  opposite. 

The  railway  has  now  no  station  at  Sher  Shah,  but 
the  Indus-steamer  captains  pick  out  a  good  place  to 
lie  alongside  the  bank,  and  the  rails  are  so  laid  as 
to  bring  the  trains  alongside  the  ships.  After  seeing 
nothing  but  flat  plains  from  the  time  of  leaving  Um- 
ritsur,  I  caught  sight  from  Sher  Shah  of  the  great 
Sooleiman  chain  of  the  Afghan  Mountains,  rising  in 
black  masses  through  the  fiery  mist  that  fills  the  Indus 
valley. 

I  had  so  timed  my  arrival  on  board  the  river-boat 
that  she  sailed  the  next  morning,  and  after  a  day's  un- 
eventful steaming,  varied  by  much  running  aground, 
when  we  anchored  in  the  evening  we  were  in  the  native 
State  of  Bhawulpore. 

While  we  were  wandering  about  the  river-shore  in 
the  evening,  I  and  my  two  or  three  European  fellow- 
travelers,  we  met  a  native,  with  whom  one  of  our  num- 
ber got  into  conversation.  The  Englishman  had  heard 
that  Bhawulpore  was  to  be  annexed,  so  he  asked  the 
native  whether  he  was  a  British  subject,  to  which  the 
answer  was  to  the  effect  that  he  did  not  know.  "  To 
whom  do  you  pay  your  taxes?"  "To  the  govern- 
ment." " Which  government?  the  English  govern- 
ment or  the  Bhawulpore  government?'*  His  answer 

23* 


270  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

was  that  he  did  not  care  so  long  as  he  had  to  pay 
them  to  somebody,  and  that  he  certainly  did  not 
know. 

Little  as  our  Bhawulpore  friend  knew  or  cared  about 
the  color  of  his  rulers,  he  was  nevertheless,  according 
to  our  Indian  government  theories,  one  of  the  people 
who  ought  to  be  most  anxious  for  the  advent  of  English 
rule.  Such  has  been  the  insecurity  of  life  in  Bhawul- 
pore, that,  of  the  six  last  viziers,  five  have  been  mur- 
dered by  order  of  the  Khan,  the  last  of  all  having  been 
strangled  in  1862;  and  no  native  State  has  been  more 
notorious  than  Bhawulpore  for  the  extravagance  and 
gross  licentiousness  of  the  reigning  princes.  The  rulers 
of  Bhawulpore,  although  nominally  controlled  by  us, 
have  hitherto  been  absolute  despots,  and  have  fre- 
quently put  to  death  their  subjects  out  of  mere  whimsy. 
For  years  the  country  has  been  torn  by  ceaseless  revo- 
lutions, to  the  ruin  of  the  traders  and  the  demoraliza- 
tion of  the  people;  the  taxes  have  been  excessive, 
peculation  universal,  and  the  army  has  lived  at  free 
quarters.  The  Khans  were  for  many  years  in  such 
dread  of  attempts  upon  their  lives,  that  every  dish  for 
their  table  was  tasted  by  the  cooks;  the  army  was 
mutinous,  all  appointments  bought  and  sold,  and  the 
Khans  being  Mohammedans,  no  one  need  pay  a  debt 
to  a  Hindoo. 

Bhawulpore  is  no  exceptional  case;  everywhere  we 
hear  of  similar  deeds  being  common  in  native  States. 
One  of  the  native  rulers  lately  shot  a  man  for  killing  a 
tiger  that  the  rajah  had  wounded ;  another  flogged  a 
subject  for  defending  his  wife;  abduction,  adultery, 
and  sale  of  wives  are  common  among  them.  Land  is 
seized  from  its  holders  without  compensation  being  so 
much  as  offered  to  them;  extortion,  torture,  and  denial 
of  justice  are  common,  open  venality  prevails  in  all 


NATIVE   STATES.  271 

ranks,  and  no  native  will  take  the  pledged  word  of  his 
king,  while  the  revenues,  largely  made  up  of  forced 
loans,  are  wasted  on  all  that  is  most  vile. 

In  a  vast  number  of  cases,  the  reigning  families  have 
degenerated  to  such  an  extent,  that  the  scepter  has 
come  into  the  hands  of  some  mere  driveler,  whom,  for 
the  senselessness  of  his  rule,  it  has  at  last  been  neces- 
sary to  depose.  Those  who  have  made  idiocy  their 
study,  know  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  infirmity 
is  the  last  stage  of  the  declension  of  a  race  worn  out 
by  hereditary  perpetuation  of  luxury,  vice,  or  disease 
the  effect  of  vice.  Every  ruling  family  in  the  East, 
save  such  as  slave  marriages  have  reinvigorated,  is 
one  of  these  run-down  and  exhausted  breeds.  JSTot 
only  unbounded  tyranny  and  extortion,  but  incredible 
venality  and  corruption,  prevail  in  the  greater  number 
of  native  States.  The  Rajah  of  Travancore,  as  it  is 
said,  lately  requiring  some  small  bungalow  to  be  added 
to  a  palace,  a  builder  contracted  to  build  it  for  10,000rs. 
After  a  time,  he  came  to  apply  to  be  let  off,  and  on  the 
Eajah  asking  him  the  reason,  he  said:  "Your  high- 
ness, of  the  10,000rs.,  your  prime  minister  will  get 
5000rs.,  his  secretary  lOOOrs.,  the  baboos  in  his  office 
another  2000rs.,  the  ladies  of  the  zenana  lOOOrs.,  and 
the  commander  of  your  forces  500rs. ;  now,  the  bunga- 
low itself  will  cost  500rs.,  so  where  am  I  to  make  my 
profit?"  Corruption,  however,  pervades  in  India  all 
native  institutions;  it  is  not  enough  to  show  that  native 
States  are  subject  to  it,  unless  we  can  prove  that  it  is 
worse  there  than  in  our  own  dominions.' 

The  question  whether  British  or  native  rule  be  the 
least  distasteful  to  the  people  of  India  is  one  upon 
which  it  is  not  easy  to  decide.  It  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  our  government  should  be  popular  with  the  Raj- 
poot chiefs,  or  with  the  great  nobles  of  Oude,  but  it 


272  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

may  fairly  be  contended  that  the  mass  of  the  people 
live  in  more  comfort,  and,  in  spite  of  the  Orissa  case, 
are  less  likely  to  starve,  in  English  than  in  native  ter- 
ritory. No  nation  has  at  any  time  ever  governed  an 
alien  empire  more  wisely  or  justly  than  we  the  Pun- 
jaub.  The  men  who  cry  out  against  our  rule  are  the 
nobles  and  the  schemers,  who,  under  it,  are  left  with- 
out a  hope.  Our  leveling  rule  does  not  even,  like  other 
democracies,  raise  up  a  military  chieftainship.  Our 
native  officers  of  the  highest  rank  are  paid  and  treated 
much  as  are  European  sergeants,  though  in  native 
States  they  would  of  course  be  generals  and  princes. 

Want  of  promotion  for  sepoys  and  educated  native 
civilians,  and  the  degrading  treatment  of  the  high-caste 
people  by  the  English,  were  causes,  among  others,  of 
the  mutiny.  The  treatment  of  the  natives  cannot 
easily  be  reformed;  if  we  punish  or  discourage  such 
behavior  in  our  officers,  we  cannot  easily  reach  the 
European  planters  and  the  railway  officials,  while  pun- 
ishment itself  would  only  make  men  treat  the  natives 
with  violence  instead  of  mere  disdain,  when  out  of 
sight  of  their  superiors.  There  is,  however,  reason  to 
believe  that  in  many  districts  the  people  are  not  only 
well  off  under  our  government,  but  that  they  know  it. 
During  the  native  rule  in  Oude,  the  population  was 
diminished  by  a  continual  outpour  of  fugitives.  The 
British  district  of  Mirzapore  Chowhare,  on  the  Oude 
frontiers,  had  a  rural  population  of  over  1000  to  each 
square  mile — a  density  entirely  owing  to  the  emi- 
gration of  the  natives  from  their  villages  in  Oude. 
Again,  British  Burmah  is  draining  of  her  people 
Upper  Burmah,  which  remains  under  the  old  rulers; 
and  throughout  India  the  eye  can  distinguish  British 
territories  from  the  native  States  by  the  look  of  pros- 
perity which  is  borne  by  all  our  villages. 


NATIVE   STATES.  273 

The  native  merchants  and  townsfolk  generally  are 
our  friends.  It  is  unfortunately  the  fact,  however,  that 
the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  who  form  three-fourths  of 
the  population  of  India,  believe  themselves  worse  off 
under  us  than  in  the  native  States.  They  say  that 
they  care  not  who  rules  so  long  as  their  holdings  are 
secured  to  them  at  a  fixed  rent,  whereas  under  our 
system  the  zemindars  pay  us  a  fixed  rent,  but  in  many 
districts  exact  what  they  please  from  the  competing 
peasants — a  practice  which,  under  the*  native  system, 
was  prevented  by  custom.  In  all  our  future  land-set- 
tlements, it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  agreement  will 
be  made,  not  with  middlemen,  but  directly  with  the 
people. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  lay  down  certain  rules  for  our 
future  behavior  toward  the  native  States.  We  already 
exercise  over  the  whole  of  them  a  control  sufficient  to 
secure  ourselves  against  attack  in  time  of  peace,  but 
not  sufficient  to  relieve  us  from  all  fear  of  hostile  action 
in  time  of  internal  revolt  or  external  war.  It  might  be 
well  that  we  should  issue  a  proclamation  declaring 
that,  for  the  future,  we  should  invariably  recognize 
the  practice  of  adoption  of  children  by  the  native 
rulers,  as  we  have  done  in  the  case  of  the  Mysore  suc- 
cession; but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  we  should  re- 
quire the  gradual  disbandment  of  all  troops  not  needed 
for  the  preservation  of  internal  peace.  We  might  well 
commence  our  action  in  this  matter  by  calling  upon 
the  native  rulers  to  bind  themselves  by  treaty  no 
longer  to  keep  on  foot  artillery.  In  the  event  of  an 
invasion  of  Hindostan,  a  large  portion  of  our  European 
force  would  be  needed  to  overawe  the  native  princes 
and  prevent  their  marching  upon  our  rear.  It  is  im- 
possible to  believe  that  the  native  States  would  ever 
be  of  assistance  to  us  except  in  cases  where  we  could 


274  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

do  without  their  help.  During  the  mutiny,  the  Ne- 
paulese  delayed  their  promised  march  to  join  us  until 
they  were  certain  that  we  should  beat  the  mutineers, 
and  this  although  the  Nepaulese  are  among  our  surest 
friends.  After  the  mutiny,  it  came  to  light  that  Luck- 
now  and  Delhi — then  native  capitals — had  been  centers 
of  intrigue,  although  we  had  "  Residents"  at  each,  and 
it  is  probable  that  Hyderabad  and  Cashmere  City  are 
little  less  dangerous  to  us  now  than  was  Delhi  in  1857. 
There  is  one  native  State,  that  of  Cashmere  and 
Jummoo,  which  stands  upon  a  very  different  footing 
from  the  rest.  Created  by  us  as  late  as  1846, — when  we 
sold  this  best  of  all  the  provinces  conquered  by  us  from 
the  Maharajahs  of  Lahore  to  a  Sikh  traitor,  Gholab 
Singh,  an  ex-farmer  of  taxes,  for  three-quarters  of  a 
million  sterling,  which  he  embezzled  from  the  treasury 
of  Lahore, — the  State  of  Cashmere  has  been  steadily 
misgoverned  for  twenty  years.  Although  our  tribu- 
tary, the  Maharajah  of  Cashmere  forbids  English  trav- 
elers to  enter  his  dominions  without  leave  (which  is 
granted  only  to  a  fixed  number  of  persons  every  year), 
to  employ  more  than  a  stated  number  of  servants,  to 
travel  except  by  certain  passes  for  fear  of  their  meet- 
ing his  wives,  to  buy  provisions  except  of  certain  per- 
sons, or  to  remain  in  the  country  after  the  1st  Novem- 
ber under  any  circumstances  whatever.  He  imprisons 
all  native  Christians,  prohibits  the  exportation  of  grain 
whenever  there  is  a  scarcity  in  our  territory,  and  takes 
every  opportunity  that  falls  in  his  way  of  insulting  our 
government  and  its  officials.  Our  Central  Asian  trade 
has  been  ail-but  entirely  destroyed  by  the  duties  levied 
by  his  officers,  and  Russia  is  the  Maharajah's  chosen 
friend.  The  unhappy  people  of  the  Cashmere  valley, 
sold  by  us,  without  their  consent  or  knowledge,  to  a 
family  which  has  never  ceased  to  oppress  them,  petition 


NATIVE   STATES.  275 

us  continually  for  relief,  and,  by  flocking  into  our  Pun- 
jaub  territory,  give  practical  testimony  to  the  wrongs 
they  suffer. 

In  this  case  of  Cashmere,  there  is  ample  ground  for 
immediate  repurchase  or  annexation,  if  annexation  it 
can  be  called  to  remove  or  buy  out  a  feudatory  family 
which  was  unjustly  raised  to  power  by  us  twenty- two 
years  ago,  and  which  has  broken  every  article  of  the 
agreement  under  which  it  was  placed  upon  the  tribu- 
tary throne.  The  only  reason  which  has  ever  been 
shown  against  the  resumption  by  us  of  the  government 
of  the  Cashmere  valley  is  the  strange  argument  that, 
by  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  a  feudatory,  We  save  the 
expense  of  defending  the  frontier  against  the  danger- 
ous hill-tribes ;  although  the  revenues  of  the  province, 
even  were  taxation  much  reduced,  would  amply  suffice 
to  meet  the  cost  of  continual  war,  and  although  our 
experience  in  Central  India  has  shown  that  many  hill- 
tribes  which  will  not  submit  to  Hindoo  rajahs  become 
peaceable  at  once  upon  our  annexation  of  their  coun- 
try. Were  Cashmere  independent  and  in  the  hands  of 
its  old  rulers,  there  would  be  ample  ground  for  its  an- 
nexation in  the  prohibition  of  trade,  the  hinderance  to 
the  civilization  of  Central  Asia,  the  gross  oppression  of 
the  people,  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  the  impris- 
onment of  Christians ;  as  it  is,  the  non-annexation  of 
the  country  almost  amounts  to  a  crime  against  man- 
kind. 

Although  the  necessity  of  consolidation  of  our  em- 
pire and  the  progressive  character  of  our  rule  are 
reasons  for  annexing  the  whole  of  the  native  States, 
there  are  other  and  stronger  arguments  in  favor  of 
leaving  them  as  they  are ;  our  policy  toward  the  Nizam 
must  be  regulated  by  the  consideration  that  he  is  now 
the  head  of  the  Moslem  power  in  India,  and  that  his 


276  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

influence  over  the  Indian  Mohammedans  may  be  made 
useful  to  us  in  our  dealings  with  that  dangerous  por- 
tion of  our  people.  Our  military  arrangements  with 
the  Nizam  are,  moreover,  on  the  best  of  footings. 
Scindia  is  our  friend,  and  no  bad  ruler,  but  some  inter- 
ference may  be  needed  with  the  Guicodar  of  Baroda 
and  with  Holkar.  Our  policy  toward  Mysore  is  now 
declared,  and  consists  in  respecting  the  native  rule 
if  the  young  prince  proves  himself  capable  of  good 
government;  and  we  might  impose  similar  conditions 
upon  the  remaining  princes,  and  also  suppress  forced 
labor  in  their  States  as  we  have  ail-but  suppressed 
suttee. 

In  dealing  with  the  native  princes,  it  is  advisable 
that  we  should  remember  that  we  are  no  interlopers  of 
to-day  coming  in  to  disturb  families  that  have  been  for 
ages  the  rulers  of  the  land.  Many  of  the  greatest  of 
the  native  families  were  set  up  by  ourselves;  and  of 
the  remainder,  few,  if  any,  have  been  in  possession  of 
their  countries  so  long  as  have  the  English  of  Madras 
or  Bombay. 

The  Guicodars  of  Baroda  and  the  family  of  Holkar 
are  descended  from  cowherds,  and  that  of  Scindia  from 
a  peasant,  and  none  of  them  date  back  much  more  than 
a  hundred  years.  The  family  of  the  Nabobs  of  Arcot, 
founded  by  an  adventurer,  is  not  more  ancient,  neither 
is  that  of  Nizam :  the  great  Hyder  AH  was  the  son  of 
a  police-constable,  and  was  unable  to  read  or  write. 
"While  we  should  religiously  adhere  to  the  treaties 
that  we  have  made,  we  are  bound,  in  the  interests  of 
humanity,  to  intervene  in  all  cases  where  it  is  certain 
that  the  mass  of  the  people  would  prefer  our  rule,  and 
where  they  are  suffering  under  slavery  or  gross  op- 
pression. 

Holkar  has  permitted  us  to  make  a  railway  across  his 


NATIVE   STATES.  277 

territory,  but  he  levies  such  enormous  duties  upon 
goods  in  transit  as  to  cramp  the  development  of  trade 
in  a  considerable  portion  of  our  dominions.  Now,  the 
fact  that  a  happy  combination  of  circumstances  enabled 
the  cowherd,  his  ancestor,  to  seize  upon  a  certain  piece 
of  territory  a  hundred  years  ago  can  have  given  his 
descendants  no  prescriptive  right  to  impede  the  civili- 
zation of  India;  all  that  we  must  aim  at  is  to  so  im- 
prove our  governmental  system  as  to  make  the  natives 
themselves  see  that  our  rule  means  the  moral  advance- 
ment of  their  country. 

The  best  argument  that  can  be  made  use  of  against 
our  rule  is  that  its  strength  and  minuteness  enfeeble 
the  native  character.  When  we  annex  a  State,  we  put 
an  end  to  promotion  alike  in  war  and  learning;  and 
under  our  rule,  unless  it  change  its  character,  enlight- 
enment must  decline  in  India,  however  much  material 
prosperity  may  increase. 

Under  our  present  system  of  exclusion  of  natives 
from  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  the  more  boys  we 
educate,  the  more  vicious  and  discontented  men  we 
have  beneath  our  rule.  Were  we  to  throw  it  open  to 
them,  under  a  plan  of  competition  which  would  admit 
to  the  service  even  a  small  number  of  natives,  we 
should  at  least  obtain  a  valuable  body  of  friends  in 
those  admitted,  and  should  make  the  excluded  feel 
that  their  exclusion  was  in  some  measure  their  own 
fault.  As  it  is,  we  not  only  exclude  natives  from 
our  own  service,  but  even  to  some  extent  from  that 
of  the  native  States,  whose  levies  are  often  drilled  by 
English  officers.  The  Guicodar  of  Baroda's  service  is 
popular  with  Englishmen,  as  it  has  become  a  custom 
that  when  he  has  a  review  he  presents  each  of  his 
officers  with  a  year's  full  pay. 

Our  plan  of  shutting  out  the  natives  from  all  share 
VOL.  ii.  24 


278  GEE  ATE  E   BEITAIN. 

in  the  government  not  only  makes  our  rule  unpopu- 
lar, but  gives  rise  to  the  strongest  of  all  the  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  retention  of  the  existing  native 
States,  which  is,  that  they  offer  a  career  to  shrewd 
and  learned  natives,  who  otherwise  would  spend  their 
leisure  in  devising  plots  against  us.  One  of  the  ablest 
men  in  India,  Madhava  Rao,  now  premier  of  Travan- 
core,  was  born  in  our  territory,  and  was  senior  scholar 
of  his  year  in  the  Madras  College.  That  such  men  as 
Madhava  Rao  and  Salar  Jung  should  be  incapable  of 
finding  suitable  employment  in  our  service  is  one  of 
the  standing  reproaches  of  our  rule. 

Could  we  but  throw  open  our  service  to  the  natives, 
our  government  might,  with  advantage  to  civiliza- 
tion, be  extended  over  the  whole  of  the  native  States; 
for,  whether  we  are  ever  to  leave  India  or  whether  we 
are  to  remain  there  till  the  end  of  time,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  but  that  the  course  best  adapted  to  raise  the 
moral  condition  of  the  natives  is  to  mould  Hindostan 
into  a  homogeneous  empire  sufficiently  strong  to  stand 
by  itself  against  all  attacks  from  without,  and  inter- 
nally governed  by  natives,  under  a  gradually  weakened 
control  from  at  home.  If,  after  careful  trial,  we  find 
that  we  cannot  educate  the  people  to  become  active 
supporters  of  our  power,  then  it  will  be  time  to  make 
use  of  the  native  princes  and  grandees ;  but  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  people,  as  they  become  well  taught, 
will  also  become  the  mainstay  of  our  democratic 
rule. 

The  present  attitude  of  the  mass  of  the  people  is 
one  of  indifference  and  neutrality,  which  in  itself  lends 
a  kind  of  passive  strength  to  our  rule.  During  the 
mutiny  of  1857,  the  people  neither  aided  nor  opposed 
us;  and  even  had  the  whole  of  the  land-owners  been 
against  us,  as  were  those  of  Oude,  it  is  doubtful 


NATIVE  STATES.  279 

whether  they  could  have  raised  their  villagers  and 
peasants.  Were  our  policemen  relatively  equal  to 
their  officers  and  to  the  magistrates,  we  should  never 
hear  of  native  disaffection,  but  we  cannot  count  upon 
the  attachment  of  the  people  so  long  as  it  is  possible 
for  our  constables  to  procure  confessions  by  the  bribery 
of  villagers  or  the  application  of  pots  full  of  wasps  to 
their  stomachs. 

In  the  matter  of  the  annexation  of  those  native 
States  which  still  cumber  the  earth,  we  are  not  alto- 
gether free  agents.  We  swallow  up  States  like  Bhawul- 
pore  just  as  Russia  consumes  Bokhara.  Everywhere 
indeed,  in  Asia,  strong  countries  must  inevitably  swal- 
low up  their  weaker  neighbors.  Failure  of  heirs, 
broken  treaties,  irregular  frontiers — all  these  are  rea- 
sons or  assumed  reasons  for  advance ;  but  the  end  is 
certain,  and  is  exemplified  in  the  march  of  England 
from  Calcutta  to  Peshawur  and  of  Russia  from  the 
Aral  to  Turkestan.  Our  experience  in  the  case  of  the 
Punjaub  shows  that  even  honest  discouragement  of 
farther  advances  on  the  part  of  the  rulers  of  the  stronger 
power  will  not  always  suffice  to  prevent  annexation. 


280  GEEATEE   BEITAIN. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

SCINDE. 

Mithun  Kote,  we  steamed  suddenly  into  the 
main  stream  of  the  Indus,  the  bed  of  which  is  here 
a  mile  and  a  quarter  wide.  Although  the  river  at  the 
time  of  my  visit  was  rising  fast,  it  was  far  from  heing 
at  its  greatest  height.  In  January,  it  hrings  down  but 
forty  thousand  cubic  feet  of  water  every  second,  but  in 
August  it  pours  down  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
The  river-bed  is  rarely  covered  with  running  water, 
but  the  stream  cuts  a  channel  for  itself  upon  one  shore, 
and  flows  in  a  current  of  eight  or  nine  miles  an  hour, 
while  the  remainder  of  the  bed  is  filled  with  half-liquid 
sand. 

The  navigation  of  the  Indus  is  monotonous  enough. 
"Were  it  not  for  the  climate,  the  view  would  resemble 
that  on  the  Maas,  near  Rotterdam,  though  with  alli- 
gators lining  the  banks  instead  of  logs  from  the  Upper 
Meuse;  but  climate  affects  color,  and  every  country 
has  tints  of  its  own.  California  is  golden,  New  Zea- 
land a  black-green,  Australia  yellow,  the  Indus  valley 
is  of  a  blazing  red.  Although  every  evening  the 
Beloochee  Mountains  came  in  sight  as  the  sun  sank 
down  behind  them,  and  revealed  their  shapes  in 
shadow,  all  through  the  day  the  landscape  was  one  of 
endless  flats.  The  river  is  a  dirty  flood,  now  swift, 
now  sluggish,  running  through  a  country  in  which 
sand  deserts  alternate  only  with  fields  of  stone.  Vil- 


SCINDE.  281 

• 

lages  upon  the  banks  there  are  none,  and  from  town 
to  town  is  a  day's  journey  at  the  least.  The  only  life 
in  the  view  is  given  by  an  occasional  sail  of  gigantic 
size  and  curious  shape,  belonging  to  some  native  craft 
or  other  on  her  voyage  from  the  Punjaub  to  Kurrachee. 
On  our  journey  down  the  Indus,  we  passed  hundreds 
of  ships,  but  met  not  one.  They  are  built  of  timber, 
which  is  plentiful  in  the  Himalayas,  upon  the  head- 
waters of  the  river,  and  carry  down  to  the  sea  the  prod- 
uce of  the  Punjaub.  The  stream  is  so  strong,  that 
the  ships  are  broken  up  in  Scinde,  and  the  crews  walk 
back  1000  miles  along  the  bank.  In  building  his  ships 
upon  the  Hydaspes,  and  sailing  them  down  the  Indus 
to  its  mouth,  Alexander  did  but  follow  the  custom  of 
the  country.  The  natives,  however,  break  up  their 
ships  at  Kotree,  whereas  the  Macedonian  intrusted  his 
to  Nearchus  for  the  voyage  to  the  Gulf  of  Persia  and 
a  survey  of  the  coast. 

Geographically,  the  Indus  valley  is  but  a  portion  of 
the  Great  Sahara.  Those  who  know  the  desert  well, 
say  that  from  Cape  Blanco  to  Khartoom,  from  Khar- 
toom  to  Muscat,  from  Muscat  to  Moultan,  the  desert 
is  but  one ;  the  same  in  the  absence  of  life,  the  same  in 
such  life  as  it  does  possess.  The  Valley  of  the  Mle  is 
but  an  oasis,  the  Gulfs  of  Persia  and  of  Aden  are  but 
trifling  breaks  in  its  vast  width.  Rainless,  swept  by 
dry  hot  winds  lad^n  with  prickly  sand,  traversed  every- 
where by  low  ranges  of  red  and  sunburnt  rocks,  strewn 
with  jagged  stones,  and  dotted  here  and  there  with  a 
patch  of  dates  gathered  about  some  ancient  well,  such 
is  the  Sahara  for  a  length  of  near  six  thousand  miles. 
On  the  Indus  banks,  the  sand  is  as  salt  as  it  is  at  Suez, 
and  there  are  as  many  petrified  trees  between  Sukkur 
and  Kurrachee  as  there  are  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Cairo. 

24* 


282  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

9 

Our  days  on  board  were  all  passed  upon  one  plan. 
Each  morning  we  rose  at  dawn,  which  came  about 
half-past  four,  and,  watching  the  starting  of  the  ship 
from  the  bank  where  she  had  been  moored  all  night, 
we  got  a  cool  walk  in  our  sleeping-clothes  before  we 
bathed  and  dressed.  The  heat  then  suffocated  us  quietly 
till  four,  when  we  would  reassert  the  majesty  of  man  by 
bathing,  and  attempting  to  walk  or  talk  till  dinner, 
which  was  at  five.  At  dark  we  anchored,  and  after 
watching  the  water-turtles  at  their  play,  or  hunting  for 
the  monstrous  water-lizards  known  as  "  gos," — appar- 
ently the  ichneumons  called  in  Egypt  "gots," — or 
sometimes  fishing  for  great  mud-fish  with  wide  mouths 
and  powerful  teeth,  we  would  resume  our  sleeping- 
clothes  (in  which,  but  for  the  dignity  of  the  Briton  in 
the  eyes  of  the  native  crew,  we  should  have  dined  and 
spent  the  day).  At  half-past  seven  or  eight,  we  lay 
down  on  deck,  and  forgot  our  sorrows  in  sleep,  or  en- 
gaged in  a  frantic  struggle  with  the  cockroaches.  In 
the  latter  conflict  we — in  our  dreams  at  least — were  not 
victorious,  and  once  in  an  awful  trance  I  believed  my- 
self carried  off  by  one  leg  in  the  jaws  of  a  gigantic 
cockroach,  and  pushed  with  his  feelers  down  into  his 
horrid  hole. 

Each  hour  passed  on  the  Indus  differs  from  the 
others  only  in  the  greater  or  less  portion  of  it  which 
is  devoted  to  getting  off  the  sand-banks.  After  steam- 
ing gallantly  down  a  narrow  but  deep  and  swift  piece 
of  the  river,  we  would  come  to  a  spot  at  which  the 
flood  would  lose  itself  in  crossing  its  bed  from  one 
bank  to  the  other.  Backing  the  engines,  but  being 
whirled  along  close  to  the  steep  bank  by  the  remaining 
portion  of  the  current,  we  soon  felt  a  shock,  the  recoil 
from  which  upset  us,  chairs  and  all,  it  being  noticeable 
that  we  always  fell  up  stream,  and  not  with  our  heads 


SCINDE.  283 

in  the  direction  in  which  the  ship  was  going.  As  soon 
as  we  were  fairly  stuck,  the  captain  flew  at  the  pilot, 
and  kicked  him  round  the  deck — a  process  always 
borne  with  fortitude,  although  the  pilot  was  changed 
every  day.  The  only  pilot  never  kicked  was  one  who 
came  on  board  near  Bhawulpore,  and  who  carried  a 
jeweled  tulwar,  or  Afghan  scimetar,  but  even  he  was 
threatened.  The  kicking  over,  an  entry  of  the  time 
of  grounding  was  made  by  the  captain  in  the  pilot's 
book,  and  the  mate  was  ordered  out  in  a  boat  to  sound, 
while  the  native  soldiers  on  board  the  flats  we  were 
towing  began  quietly  to  cook  their  dinner.  The  mate 
having  found  a  sort  of  channel,  though  sometimes  it 
had  a  ridge  across  it  over  which  the  steamer  could  not 
pass  without  touching,  he  returned  for  a  kedge,  which 
he  fixed  in  the  sand,  and  we  were  soon  warped  up  to 
it  by  the  use  of  the  capstan,  the  native  crew  singing 
merrily  the  while.  Every  now  and  then,  however,  we 
would  take  the  ground  in  the  center  of  the  ship,  and 
with  deep  water  all  round,  and  then,  instead  of  getting 
off',  we  for  hours  together  only  pivoted  round  and  round. 
One  of  the  Indus  boats,  with  a  line  regiment  on  board, 
was  once  aground  for  a  month  near  Mithun  Kote,  to 
the  entire  destruction  of  all  the  wild  boars  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. 

The  kicking  of  the  unfortunate  pilots  was  not  a 
pleasant  sight,  but  there  were  sometimes  comic  inci- 
dents attached  to  our  periodic  groundings.  Once  I 
noticed  that  the  five  men  who  were  constantly  sound- 
ing with  colored  poles  in  different  parts  of  the  ship 
and  flats,  had  got  into  a  monotonous  chorus  of  "pan- 

che e  pot"  ("  five  feet") — we  drawing  only  three,  so 

that  we  went  ahead  confidently  at  full  speed,  when 
suddenly  we  ran  aground  with  a  violent  shock.  On 
the  re-sounding  of  our  course  by  the  boat's  crew,  we 


284  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

found  that  our  pole-men  must,  for  some  time  past, 
have  been  guessing  the  soundings  to  save  the  trouble 
of  looking.  These  fellows  richly  deserved  a  kicking, 
but  the  pilots  are  innocent  of  any  fault  but  inability 
to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  changes  of  the  river-course. 

Another  curious  scene  took  place  one  day  when  we 
were  steaming  down  a  reach  in  which  the  river  made 
many  sudden  twists  and  turns.  We  had  on  board  a 
merchant  from  the  Persian  Gulf,  a  devout  Moham- 
medan. In  the  afternoon,  he  carried  his  praying-carpet 
on  to  the  bridge  between  the  paddle-boxes,  arid  there, 
turning  to  the  west,  commenced  to  pray.  The  sun 
was  on  his  left,  but  almost  facing  him;  in  an  instant, 
round  whirled  the  ship,  making  her  course  between 
two  sand-bars,  and  Mecca  and  the  sun  into  the  bargain 
were  right  behind  our  worshiper.  This  was  too  much 
even  for  his  devotion,  so,  glancing  at  the  new  course, 
he  turned  his  carpet,  and,  looking  in  the  fresh  direc- 
tion, recommenced  his  prayers.  After  a  minute  or 
two,  back  went  the  ship,  and  we  began  again  to  steer 
a  southerly  course.  All  this  time  the  Persian  kept  his 
look  of  complete  abstraction,  and  remained  unshaken 
through  all  his  difficulties.  This  seriousness  in  face  of 
events  which  would  force  into  shouts  of  laughter  any 
European  congregation  is  a  characteristic  of  a  native. 
It  is  strange  that  Englishmen  are  nowhere  so  easily 
provoked  to  loud  laughter  as  in  a  church  or  college 
chapel,  natives  at  no  time  so  insusceptible  of  ridicule 
as  when  engaged  upon  the  services  of  their  religions. 

The  shallowness  of  the  Indus,  its  impracticability  for 
steamships  during  some  months  of  the  year,  and  the 
many  windings  of  the  stream — all  these  things  make 
it  improbable  that  the  river  will  ever  be  largely  avail- 
able for  purposes  of  trade;  at  the  same  time,  the  Indus 
valley  must  necessarily  be  the  line  taken  by  the  com- 


SGINDE.  285 

merce  of  the  Punjaub,  and  eventually  by  that  of  some 
portions  of  Central  Asia,  and  even  of  Southern  China. 
Whether  Kurrachee  becomes  our  great  Indian  port,  or 
whether  our  railway  be  made  through  Beloochistan,  a 
safe  and  speedy  road  up  the  Indus  valley  for  troops  and 
trade  is  needed. 

"  If  we  take  into  consideration  the  size  of  India,  the 
amount  of  its  revenues,  and  the  length  of  time  during 
which  we  have  occupied  that  portion  of  its  extent 
which  we  at  present  hold,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  not  even  in  Australia  have  railways 
been  more  completely  neglected  than  they  have  been 
in  India.  "We  have  opened  but  4000  miles,  or  one 
mile  for  every  45,000  people.  Nothing  has  been 
touched  as  yet  but  the  Grand  Trunk  and  great  mili- 
tary and  postal  routes,  and  even  these  are  little  more 
than  half  completed.  Even  the  Bombay  and  Calcutta 
mail  line  and  the  Calcutta  and  Lahore  lines  are  hardly 
finished  ;  the  Peshawur  line  and  the  Indus  road  not 
yet  begun.  While  at  home  people  believe  that  the 
Euphrates  Valley  Railway  is  under  consideration,  they 
will  find,  if  they  come  out  to  India,  that  to  reach  Pe- 
shawur in  34°  1ST.  latitude  they  must  go  to  Bombay  in 
18°,  if  not  to  Galle  in  6°.  Even  if  they  reach  Kurra- 
chee, they  will  find  it  a  month's  journey  to  Peshawur. 
While  we  are  trying  to  tempt  the  wool  and  shawls  of 
Central  Asia  down  to  Umritsur  and  Lahore,  the  goods 
with  which  we  would  buy  these  things  are  sent  round 
by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  Calcutta. 

It  is  true  that  the  Indus  line  will  be  no  easy  one  to 
make.  To  bridge  the  river  at  Mithun  Kote  or  even 
at  Kotree  would  be  difficult  enough,  and  were  it  to  be 
bridged  at  Sukkur,  where  there  is  rock,  and  a  narrow 
pass  upon  the  river,  the  line  from  Sukkur  to  Kurra- 
chee would  be  exposed  to  depredation  from  the  fron- 


286  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

tier  tribes.  The  difficulties  are  great,  but  the  need  is 
greater,  and  the  argument  of  the  heavy  cost  of  river- 
side railroads  should  not  weigh  with  us  in  the  case  of 
lines  required  for  the  safety  of  the  country.  The  La- 
hore and  Peshawur,  the  Kotree  and  Moultan,  the  Ko- 
tree  and  Baroda,  and  the  Baroda  and  Delhi  lines,  in- 
stead of  being  set  one  against  the  other  for  comparison, 
should  be  simultaneously  completed  as  necessary  for 
the  defense  of  the  empire,  and  as  forming  the  trunk 
lines  for  innumerable  branches  into  the  cotton-  and 
wheat-growing  districts. 

One  of  the  branches  of  the  Indus  line  will  have 
to  be  constructed  from  the  Bholan  Pass  to  Sukkur, 
where  we  lay  some  days  embarking  cotton.  Sukkur 
lies  on  the  Beloochistan  side;  Roree  fort — known  as 
the  "Key  of  Scinde,"  the  seizure  of  which  by  us  pro- 
voked the  great  war  with  the  Ameers — on  an  island 
in  mid-stream;  and  Bukkur  City  on  the  eastern  or  left 
bank;  and  the  river,  here  narrowed  to  a  width  of  a 
quarter  of  a  mile,  runs  with  the  violence  of  a  mountain 
torrent. 

Sukkur  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  of  Indian  cities, 
and  was  mentioned  as  time-worn  by  the  Greek  geog- 
raphers, while  tradition  says  that  its  antiquities 
attracted  Alexander;  but  towns  grow  old  with  great 
rapidity  in  India,  and,  once  ancient  in  their  look, 
never  to  the  eye  become  in  the  slightest  degree  older. 

In  Sukkur  I  first  saw  the  Scindee  cap,  which  may 
be  described  as  a  tall  hat  with  the  brim  atop ;  but  the 
Scindees  were  not  the  only  strangely-dressed  traders 
in  Sukkur  and  Roree:  there  were  high-capped  Per- 
sians, and  lean  Afghans  with  long  gaunt  faces  and 
high  cheek-bones,  and  furred  merchants  from  Central 
Asia.  It  is  even  said  that  goods  find  their  way  over- 
land from  China  to  Sukkur,  through  Eastern  Persia 


SCINDE.  287 

and  Beloochistan,  the  traders  preferring  to  come  round 
four  thousand  miles  than  to  cross  the  main  chain  of 
the  Himalayas  or  pass  through  the  country  of  the 
Afghans. 

In  ancient  times  there  was  considerable  intercourse 
between  China  and  Hindostan;  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  indeed,  the  Chinese  invaded  India 
through  Nepaul,  and  captured  five  hundred  cities.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  the  next  few  years  may  see  a  rail- 
way built  from  Rangoon  to  Southern  China,  and  from 
Calcutta  to  the  Yang-tse-Kiang,  a  river  upon  which 
there  are  ample  stores  of  coal,  which  would  supply  the 
manufacturing  wants  of  India. 

After  viewing  from  a  lofty  tower  the  flat  country 
in  the  direction  of  Shikapore,  we  spent  one  of  our 
Sukkur  evenings  upon  the  island  of  Roree  watching 
the  natives  fishing.  Casting  themselves  into  the  river 
on  the  top  of  skins  full  of  air,  or  more  commonly  on 
great  earthenware  pitchers,  they  floated  at  a  rapid  pace 
down  with  the  whirling  stream,  pushing  before  them 
a  sunken  net  which  they  could  close  and  lift  by  the 
drawing  of  a  string.  About .  twice  a  minute  they 
would  strike  a  fish,  and,  lifting  their  head,  would  im- 
pale the  captive  on  a  stick  slung. behind  their  back, 
and  at  once  lower  again  the  net  in  readiness  for  fur- 
ther action. 

Sukkur,  like  seven  other  places  that  I  had  visited 
within  a  year,  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  hottest 
city  in  the  world,  and  the  joke  on  the  boats  of  the 
Indus  flotilla  is  that  Moultan  is  too  hot  to  bear,  and 
Sukkur  much  hotter;  but  that  Jacobabad,  on  the 
Beloochee  frontier,  near  Sukkur,  is  so  hot  that  the 
people  come  down  thence  to  Sukkur  for  the  hot  season, 
and  find  its  coolness  as  refreshing  as  ordinary  mortals 
do  that  of  Simla.  Hot  as  is  Sukkur,  it  is  fairly  beaten 


288  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

by  a  spot  at  the  foot  of  the  Ibex  Hills,  near  Sehwan. 
I  was  sleeping  on  the  bridge  with  an  officer  from  Pe- 
shawur,  when  the  crew  were  preparing  to  put  off  from 
the  bank  for  the  day's  journey.  "We  were  awakened 
by  the  noise ;  but,  as  we  sat  up  and  rubbed  our  eyes,  a 
blast  of  hot  wind  came  down  from  the  burnt-up  hills, 
laden  with  fine  sand,  and  of  such  a  character  that  1  got 
a  lantern — for  it  was  not  fully  light — and  made  my  way 
to  the  deck  thermometer.  I  found  it  standing  at  104°, 
although  the  hour  was  4-15  A.M.  At  breakfast-time, 
it  had  fallen  to  100°,  from  which  it  slowly  rose,  until 
at  1  P.M.  it  registered  116°  in  the  shade.  The  next 
night,  it  never  fell  below  100°.  This  was  the  highest 
temperature  I  experienced  in  India  during  the  hot 
weather,  and  it  was,  singularly  enough,  the  same  as 
the  highest  which  I  recorded  in  Australia.  No  part 
of  the  course  of  the  Indus  is  within  the  tropics,  but  it 
is  not  in  the  tropics  that  the  days  are  hottest,  although 
the  nights  are  generally  unbearable  on  sea-level  near 
the  equator. 

At  Kootree,  near  Hydrabad,  the  capital  of  Scinde, 
where  the  tombs  of  the  Ameers  are  imposing,  if  far 
from  beautiful,  we  left  the  Indus  for  the  railway,  and, 
after  a  night's  journey,  found  ourselves  upon  the  sea- 
shore at  Kurrachee. 


OVERLAND  ROUTES.  289 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

OVERLAND   ROUTES. 

OF  all  the  towns  in  India,  Kurrachee  is  the  least 
Indian.  With  its  strong  southwesterly  breeze,  its 
open  sea  and  dancing  waves,  it  is  to  one  coming  from 
the  Indus  valley  a  pleasant  place  enough;  and  the 
climate  is  as  good  as  that  of  Alexandria,  though  there 
is  at  Kurrachee  all  the  dust  of  Cairo.  For  a  stranger 
detained  against  his  will  to  find  Kurrachee  bearable 
there  must  be  something  refreshing  in  its  breezes : 
the  town  stands  on  a  treeless  plain,  and  of  sights 
there  are  none,  unless  it  be  the  sacred  alligators  at 
Muggur  Peer,  where  the  tame  " man-eaters"  spring 
at  a  goat  for  the  visitor's  amusement  as  freely  as  the 
Wolfsbrunnen  trout  jump  at  the  gudgeon. 

There  is  no  reason  given  why  the  alligators'  pool 
should  be  reputed  holy,  but  in  India  places  easily 
acquire  sacred  fame.  About  Peshawur  there  dwell 
many  hill-fanatics,  whose  sole  religion  appears  to  con- 
sist in  stalking  British  sentries.  So  many  of  them 
have  been  locked  up  in  the  Peshawur  jail  that  it  has 
become  a  holy  place,  and  men  are  said  to  steal  and 
riot  in  the  streets  of  the  bazaar  in  order  that  they  may 
be  consigned  to  this  sacred  temple. 

The  nights  were  noisy  in  Kurrachee,  for  the  great 
Mohammedan  feast  of  the  Mohurrum  had  commenced, 
and  my  bungalow  was  close  to  the  lines  of  the  police, 
who  are  mostly  Belooch  Mohammedans.  Every  even- 
ing, at  dusk,  fires  were  lighted  in  the  police-lines  and 
VOL.  n.  25 


290  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

the  bazaar,  and  then  the  tomtom-ing  gradually  in- 
creased from  the  gentle  drone  of  the  daytime  until 
a  perfect  storm  of  "tom-a-tom,  tomtom,  tom-a-tom, 
tomtom,"  burst  from  all  quarters  of  the  town,  and 
continued  the  whole  night  long,  relieved  only  by 
blasts  from  conch-shells  and  shouts  of  "  Shah  Hassan ! 
Shah  Hoosein!  Wah  Allah!  Wah  Allah!"  as  the  per- 
formers danced  round  the  flames.  I  heartily  wished 
myself  in  the  State  of  Bhawulpore,  where  there  is  a 
license-tax  on  the  beating  of  drums  at  feasts.  The 
first  night  of  the  festival  I  called  up  a  native  servant 
who  "spoke  English,"  to  make  him  take  me  to  the 
fires  and  explain  the  matter.  His  only  explanation  was 
a  continual  repetition  of  "Dat  Mohurrum,  Mohamme- 
dan Christmas-day."  When  each  night,  about  dawn, 
the  tomtom-ing  died  away  once  more,  the  chokedars 
—  or  night  watchmen — woke  up  from  their  sound 
sleep,  and  began  to  shout  "Ha  ha!"  into  every  room 
to  show  that  they  were  awake. 

The  chokedars  are  well-known  characters  in  every 
Indian  station :  always  either  sleepy  and  useless,  or 
else  in  league  with  the  thieves,  they  are  nevertheless 
a  recognized  class,  and  are  everywhere  employed.  At 
Rawul-Pindee  and  Peshawur,  the  chokedars  are  armed 
with  guns,  and  it  is  said  that  a  newly-arrived  English 
officer  at  the  former  place  was  lately  returning  from  a 
dinner-party,  when  he  was  challenged  by  the  chokedar 
of  the  first  house  he  had  to  pass.  Not  knowing  what 
reply  to  make,  he  took  to  his  heels,  when  the  chokedar 
fired  at  him  as  he  ran.  The  shot  woke  all  the  choke- 
dars of  the  parade,  and  the  unfortunate  officer  received 
the  fire  of  every  man  as  he  passed  along  to  his  house 
at  the  farther  end  of  the  lines,  which  he  reached,  how- 
ever, in  perfect  safety.  It  has  been  suggested  that,  for 
the  purpose  of  excluding  all  natives  from  the  lines  at 


_^--flflB5=:-===S5Pllifc 


[rtxB 


OVERLAID  ROUTES.  291 

night,  there  should  be  a  shibboleth  or  standing  parole 
of  some  word  which  no  native  can  pronounce.  The 
word  suggested  is  "Shoeburyness." 

Although  chokedars  were  silent  and  tomtom-ing 
subdued  during  the  daytime,  there  were  plenty  of 
other  sounds.  Lizards  chirped  from  the  walls  of  my 
room,  and  sparrows  twittered  from  every  beam  and 
rafter  of  the  roof.  When  I  told  a  Kurrachee  friend 
that  my  slippers,  my  brushes,  and  soldier's  writing- 
case  had  all  been  thrown  by  me  on  to  the  chief  beam 
during  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  dislodge  the  enemy, 
he  replied  that  for  his  part  he  paraded  his  drawing- 
room  every  morning  with  a  double-barreled  gun, 
and  frequently  fired  into  the  rafters,  to  the  horror  of 
his  wife.  • 

In  a  small  lateen-rigged  yacht  lent  us  by  a  fellow- 
traveler  from  Moultan,  some  of  us  visited  the  works 
which  have  long  been  in  progress  for  the  improvement 
of  the  harbor  of  Kurrachee,  and  which  form  the  sole 
topic  of  conversation  among  the  residents  in  the  town. 
The  works  have  for  object  the  removal  of  the  bar  which 
obstructs  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  with  a  view  to 
permit  the  entry  of  larger  ships  than  can  at  present 
find  an  anchorage  at  Kurrachee. 

The  most  serious  question  under  discussion  is  that 
of  whether  the  bar  is  formed  by  the  Indus  silt  or 
merely  by  local  causes,  as,  if  the  former  supposition  is 
correct,  the  ultimate  disposition  of  the  ten  thousand 
millions  of  cubic  feet  of  mud  which  the  Indus  annu- 
ally brings  down  is  not  likely  to  be  affected  by  such 
works  as  those  in  progress  at  Kurrachee.  When  a 
thousand  sealed  bottles  were  lately  thrown  into  the 
Indus  for  it  to  be  seen  whether  they  would  reach  the 
bar,  the  result  of  the  "great  bottle  trick,"  as  Kurra- 
chee people  called  it,  was  that  only  one  bottle  reached 


292  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

and  not  one  weathered  a  point  six  miles  to  the  south- 
ward of  the  harbor.  The  bar  is  improving  every  year, 
and  has  now  some  twenty  feet  of  water,  so  that  ships 
of  1000  tons  can  enter  except  in  the  monsoon,  and  the 
general  belief  of  engineers  is  that  the  completion  of 
the  present  works  will  materially  increase  the  depth  of 
water. 

The  question  of  this  bar  is  not  one  of  merely  local 
interest:  a  single  glance  at  the  map  is  sufficient  to 
show  the  importance  of  Kurrachee.  Already  rising  at 
an  unprecedented  pace,  having  trebled  her  shipping 
and  quadrupled  her  trade  in  ten  years,  she  is  destined 
to  make  still  greater  strides  as  soon  as  the  Indus  Rail- 
way is  completed,  and  finally — when  the  Persian  Gulf 
route  becomes  a  fact — to  be  the  greatest  of  the  ports 
of  India. 

That  a  railway  must  one  day  be  completed  from 
Constantinople  or  from  some  port  on  the  Mediterra- 
nean to  Bussorah  on  the  Persian  Gulf  is  a  point  which 
scarcely  admits  of  doubt.  From  Kurrachee  or  Bom- 
bay to  London  by  the  Euphrates  valley  and  Constanti- 
nople is  ail-but  a  straight  line,  while  from  Bombay  to 
London  by  Aden  and  Alexandria  is  a  wasteful  curve. 
The  so-called  "Overland  Route"  is  half  as  long  again 
as  would  be  the  direct  line.  The  Red  Sea  and  Isthmus 
route  has  neither  the  advantage  of  unbroken  sea  nor 
of  unbroken  land  transit;  the  direct  route  with  a 
bridge  near  Constantinople  might  be  extended  into  a 
land  road  from  India  to  Calais  or  Rotterdam.  The 
Red  Sea  line  passes  along  the  shores  of  Arabia,  where 
there  is  comparatively  little  local  trade ;  the  Persian 
Gulf  route  would  develop  the  remarkable  wealth  of 
Persia,  and  would  carry  to  Europe  a  local  commerce 
already  great.  At  the  entrance  of  the  Persian  Gulf, 
near  Cape  Mussendoom  or  Ormuz,  we  should  establish 


OVERLAND  ROUTES.  293 

a  free  port  on  the  plan  of  Singapore.  In  1000  A.D., 
the  spot  now  known  as  Ormuz  was  a  barren  rock,  but 
a  few  years  of  permanent  occupation  of  the  spot  as  a 
free  port  changed  the  barren  islet  into  one  of  the 
wealthiest  cities  in  the  world.  The  Red  Sea  route 
crosses  Egypt,  the  direct  route  crosses  Turkey ;  and  it 
cannot  be  too  strongly  urged  that  in  war  time  "  Egypt" 
means  Russia  or  France,  while  "  Turkey"  means  Great 
Britain. 

In  any  scheme  of  a  Constantinople  and  Gulf  rail- 
road, Kurrachee  would  play  a  leading  part.  Not  only 
the  wheat  and  the  cotton  of  the  Punjaub  and  of  the 
then  irrigated  Scinde,  but  the  trade  of  Central  Asia 
would  flow  down  the  Indus,  and  it  is  hardly  too  much 
to  believe  that  the  silks  of  China,  the  teas  of  Northern 
India,  and  the  shawls  of  Cashmere  will  all  of  them  one 
day  find  in  Kurrachee  their  chief  port.  The  earliest 
known  overland  route  was  that  by  the  Persian  Gulf. 
Chinese  ships  traded  to  Ormuz  in  the  fifth  and  seventh 
centuries,  bringing  silk  and  iron,  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  any  of  the  Russian  routes  will  be  able  to  com- 
pete with  the  more  ancient  Euphrates  valley  line  of 
trade.  Shorter,  passing  through  countries  well  known 
and  comparatively  civilized,  admitting  at  once  of  the 
use  of  land  and  water  transport  side  by  side,  it  is  far 
superior  in  commercial  and  political  advantages  to  any 
of  the  Russian  desert  roads.  A  route  through  Upper 
Persia  has  been  proposed,  but  merchants  of  experience 
will  tell  you  that  greater  facilities  for  trade  are  ex- 
tended to  Europeans  in  even  the  "closed"  ports  of 
China  than  upon  the  coasts  of  Persia,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  the  freedom  of  trade  upon  a  Persian  railroad 
would  be  but  a  bad  one,  it  may  be  feared. 

The  return  of  trade  to  the  Gulf  route  will  revive  the 
glory  of  many  fallen  cities  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Ormuz 

25* 


294  GttEATER   BRITAIN. 

and  Antioch,  Cyprus  and  Rhodes,  have  a  second  his- 
tory before  them;  Crete,  Briudisi,  and  Venice  will 
each  obtain  a  renewal  of  their  ancient  fame.  Alexan- 
der of  Macedon  was  the  first  man  who  took  a  scientific 
view  of  the  importance  of  the  Gulf  route,  but  we  have 
hitherto  drawn  but  little  profit  from  the  lesson  con- 
tained in  his  commission  to  Nearchus  to  survey  the 
coast  from  the  Indus  to  the  Euphrates.  The  advan- 
tage to  be  gained  from  the  completion  of  the  railway 
from  Constantinople  to  the  Persian  Gulf  will  not  fall 
only  to  the  share  of  India  and  Great  Britain.  Holland 
and  Belgium  are,  in  proportion  to  their  wealth,  at  the 
least  as  greatly  interested  in  the  Euphrates  route  as 
are  we  ourselves,  and  should  join  us  in  its  construction. 
The  Dutch  trade  with  Java  would  be  largely  benefited, 
and  Dutch  ports  would  become  the  shipping-places  for 
Eastern  merchandise  on  its  way  to  England  and  north- 
east America,  while,  to  the  cheap  manufactures  of 
Liege,  India,  China,  and  Central  Asia  would  afford  the 
best  of  markets.  If  the  line  were  a  double  one,  to  the 
west  and  north  of  Aleppo,  one  branch  running  to  Con- 
stantinople and  the  other  to  the  Mediterranean  at  Scan- 
deroou,  the  whole  of  Europe  would  benefit  by  the  Per- 
sian trade,  and,  in  gaining  the  Persian  trade,  would 
gain  also  the  power  of  protecting  Persia  against  Rus- 
sia, and  of  thus  preventing  the  dominance  of  a  crush- 
ing despotism  throughout  the  Eastern  world.  In  a 
thousand  ways,  however,  the  advantages  of  the  line 
to  all  Europe  are  so  plainly  manifest,  that  the  only 
question  worth  discussing  is  the  nature  of  the  difficul- 
ties that  hinder  its  completion. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  Gulf  route  are  po- 
litical and  financial,  and  both  have  been  exaggerated 
without  limit.  The  project  for  a  railway  from  Con- 
stantinople to  the  Persian  Gulf  has  been  compared  to 


OVERLAND   ROUTES.  295 

that  for  the  construction  of  a  railroad  from  the  Mis- 
souri to  the  Pacific.  In  1858,  the  American  line  was 
looked  on  as  a  mere  speculator's  dream,  while  the  Eu- 
phrates Railway  was  to  be  commenced  at  once;  ten 
years  have  passed,  and  the  Pacific  Railway  is  a  fact, 
while  the  Indian  line  has  been  forgotten. 

It  is  not  that  the  making  of  the  Euphrates  line  is  a 
more  difficult  matter  than  that  of  crossing  the  Plains 
and  Rocky  Mountains.  The  distance  from  St.  Louis 
to  San  Francisco  is  1600  miles,  that  from  Constanti- 
nople to  Bussorah  is  but  1100  miles;  or  from  Scande- 
roon  to  Bussorah  only  700  miles.  From  London  to 
the  Persian  Gulf  is  not  so  far  as  from  New  "York  to 
San  Francisco.  The  American  line  had  to  cross  two 
great  snowy  chains  and  a  waterless  tract  of  consider- 
able width  :  the  Indian  route  crosses  no  passes  so  lofty 
as  those  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  or  so  difficult  as  those 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  is  well  watered  in  its  whole 
length.  On  the  American  line  there  is  little  coal,  if 
any,  while  the  Euphrates  route  would  be  plentifully 
supplied  with  coal  from  the  neighborhood  of  Bagdad. 
When  the  American  line  was  commenced,  the  pro- 
posed track  lay  across  unknown  wilds:  the  Constanti- 
nople and  Persian  Gulf  route  passes  through  venerable 
towns,  the  most  ancient  of  all  the  cities  of  the  world, 
and  the  route  itself  is  the  oldest  known  highway  of 
trade.  The  chief  of  all  the  advantages  possessed  by 
the  Indian  line  which  is  wanting  in  America  is  the 
presence  of  ample  labor  on  all  parts  of  the  road. 
Steamers  are  already  running  from  Bombay  and  Kur- 
rachee  to  the  Persian  Gulf;  others  on  the  Tigris,  and 
a  portion  of  the  Euphrates ;  there  is  a  much-used  road 
from  Bagdad  to  Aleppo;  and  a  Turkish  military  road 
from  Aleppo  to  Constantinople,  to  which  city  a  direct 
railroad  will  soon  be  opened ;  and  a  telegraph-line  be- 


296  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

longing  to  an  English  company  already  crosses  Asian 
Turkey  from  end  to  end.  Notwithstanding  the  facili- 
ties, the  Euphrates  Railway  is  still  a  project,  while  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  line  will  be  opened  in  1870. 

Were  the  financial  difficulties  those  which  the  sup- 
porters of  the  line  have  in  reality  to  meet,  it  might  be 
urged  that  there  will  be  a  great  local  traffic  between 
Bussorah,  Bagdad,  and  Aleppo,  and  from  all  these 
cities  to  the  sea,  and  that  the  government  mail  sub- 
sidies will  be  huge,  and  the  Indian  trade,  even  in  the 
worst  of  years,  considerable.  Were  the  indifference 
of  Belgium,  Germany,  and  Holland  such  that  they 
should  refuse  to  contribute  toward  the  cost  of  the  line, 
its  importance  would  amply  warrant  a  moderate  addi- 
tion to  the  debt  of  India. 

The  real  difficulties  that  have  to  be  encountered  are 
political  rather  than  financial ;  the  covert  opposition  of 
France  and  Egypt  is  not  less  powerful  for  evil  than  is 
the  open  hostility  of  Russia.  Happity  for  India,  how- 
ever, the  territories  of  our  ally  Turkey  extend  to  the 
Persian  Gulf,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  for  rail- 
way purposes  Turkish  rule,  if  we  so  please,  is  equiva- 
lent to  English  rule.  As  it  happens,  no  active  measures 
are  needed  to  advance  our  line;  but,  were  it  otherwise, 
such  intervention  as  might  be  necessary  to  secure  the 
safety  of  the  great  highway  for  Eastern  trade  with, 
Europe  would  be  defensible  were  it  exerted  toward  a 
purely  independent  government. 

The  pressure  to  be  put  upon  the  Ottoman  Porte 
must  be  direct  and  governmental.  For  a  private  com- 
pany to  conduct  a  great  enterprise  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion in  Eastern  countries  is  always  difficult;  but 
when  the  matter  is  political  in  its  nature,  or,  if  com- 
mercial, at  least  hindered  on  political  grounds,  a 
private  company  is  powerless.  It  is,  moreover,  the 


OVERLAND  ROUTES.  297 

practice  of  Eastern  governments  to  grant  concessions 
of  important  works  which  they  cannot  openly  oppose, 
but  which  in  truth  they  wish  to  hinder,  to  companies 
so  formed  as  to  be  incapable  of  proceeding  with  the 
undertaking.  When  others  apply,  the  government 
answers  them  that  nothing  further  can  be  done:  "the 
concession  is  already  granted." 

Whatever  steps  are  taken,  a  bold  front  is  needed. 
It  might  even  be  advisable  that  we  should  declare 
that  the  Euphrates  Valley  Railway  through  the  Turk- 
ish territory  from  Constantinople  arid  Scanderoon 
through  Aleppo  to  Bagdad  and  Bussorah,  and  suffi- 
cient military  posts  to  insure  its  security  in  time  of 
war,  are  necessary  to  our  tenure  of  India,  and  that 
we  should  call  upon  Turkey  to  grant  us  permission  to 
commence  our  work,  on  pain  of  the  withdrawal  of  our 
protection. 

Our  general  principle  of  non-interference  is  always 
liable  to  be  set  aside  on  proof  of  the  existence  of  a 
higher  necessity  for  intervention  than  for  adherence  to 
our  golden  rule,  and  it  may  be  contended  that  suffi- 
cient proof  has  been  shown  in  the  present  instance. 
Whether  public  action  is  to  be  taken,  or  the  matter  to 
be  left  to  private  enterprise,  it  is  hard  to  resist  the 
conclusion  that  the  Direct  Route  to  India  is  one  of  the 
most  pressing  of  the  questions  of  the  day. 

When,  in  company  with  my  fellow-passengers  from 
Moultan,  I  left  Kurrachee  for  Bombay,  we  had  on 
board  the  then  Commissioner  of  Scinde,  who  was  on 
his  way  to  take  his  seat  as  a  member  of  Council  at 
Bombay.  A  number  of  the  leading  men  of  Scinde 
came  on  board  to  bid  farewell  to  him  before  he 
sailed,  and  among  them  the  royal  brothers  who,  but 
for  our  annexation  of  the  country,  would  be  the 
reigning  Ameers  at  this  moment. 


298  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Nothing  that  I  had  seen  in  India,  even  at  Umritsur, 
surpassed  in  glittering  pomp  the  caps  and  baldrics  of 
these  Scindee  chieftains;  neither  could  anything  he 
stranger  than  their  dress.  One  had  on  a  silk  coat  of 
pale  green  shot  with  yellow,  satin  trowsers,  and  velvet 
slippers  with  curled  peaks;  another  wore  a  jacket  of 
dark  amber  with  flowers  in  white  lace.  A  third  was 
clothed  in  a  cloth  of  crimson  striped  with  amber;  and 
the  Ameer  himself  was  wearing  a  tunic  of  scarlet  silk 
and  gold,  and  a  scarf  of  purple  gauze.  All  wore  the 
strange-shaped  Scindian  hat;  all  had  jeweled  dirks, 
with  curiously-wrought  scabbards  to  hold  their  swords, 
and  gorgeously  embroidered  baldrics  to  support  them. 
The  sight,  however,  of  no  number  of  sapphires,  tur- 
quoises, and  gold  clothes  could  have  reconciled  me  to 
a  longer  detention  in  Kurrachee;  so  I  rejoiced  when 
our  bespangled  friends  disappeared  over  the  ship's 
side  to  the  sound  of  the  Lascars'  anchor-tripping 
chorus,  and  left  the  deck  to  the  "Proconsul"  and 
ourselves. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

BOMBAY. 

CROSSING  the  mouths  of  the  Gulfs  of  Cutch  and 
Cambay,  we  reached  Bombay  in  little  more  than  two 
days  from  Kurrachee;  but  as  we  rounded  Colaba  Point 
and  entered  the  harbor,  the  setting  sun  was  lighting 
up  the  distant  ranges  of  the  Western  Ghauts,  and  by 
the  time  we  had  dropped  anchor  it  was  dark,  so  I  slept 
on  board. 


BOMBAY.  299 

I  woke  to  find  the  day  breaking  over  the  peaked 
mountains  of  the  Deccan,  and  revealing  the  wooded 
summits  of  the  islands,  while  a  light  land  breeze  rip- 
pled the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the  bay  was  alive 
with  the  bright  lateen  sails  of  the  native  cotton-boats. 
The  many  woods  coming  down  in  rich  green  masses 
into  the  sea  itself  lent  a  singular  softness  to  the  view, 
and  the  harbor  echoed  with  the  capstan-songs  of  all 
nations,  from  the  American  to  the  Beloochee,  from  the 
Swedish  to  the  Greek. 

The  vegetation  that  surrounds  the  harbor,  though 
the  even  mass  of  green  is  broken  here  and  there  by 
the  crimson  cones  of  the  "gold  mohur"  trees,  resem- 
bles that  of  Ceylon,  and  the  scene  is  rather  tropical 
than  Indian,  but  there  is  nothing  tropical  and  little 
that  is  Eastern  in  the  bustle  of  the  bay.  The  lines  of 
huge  steamers,  and  forests  of  masts  backed  by  the  still 
more  crowded  field  of  roofs  and  towers,  impress  you 
with  a  sense  of  wealth  and  worldliness  from  which 
you  gladly  seek  relief  by  turning  toward  the  misty 
beauty  of  the  mountain  islands  and  the  Western 
Ghauts.  Were  the  harbor  smaller,  it  would  be  lovely; 
as  it  is,  the  distances  are  over-great. 

Notwithstanding  its  vast  trade,  Bombay  for  purposes 
of  defense  is  singularly  weak.  The  absence  of  bat- 
teries from  the  entrance  to  so  great  a  trading  port 
strikes  eyes  that  have  seen  San  Francisco  and  New 
York,  and  the  marks  on  the  sea-wall  of  Bombay  Castle 
of  the  cannon-balls  of  the  African  admirals  of  the 
Mogul  should  be  a  warning  to  the  Bombay  merchants 
to  fortify  their  port  against  attacks  by  sea,  but  act  as  a 
reminder  to  the  traveler  that,  from  a  military  point  of 
view,  Kurrachee  is  a  better  harbor  than  Bombay,  the 
approach  to  which  can  easily  be  cut  off,  and  its  people 
starved.  One  advantage,  however,  of  the  erection  of 


300  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

batteries  at  the  harbor's  mouth  would  be,  that  the 
present  fort  might  be  pulled  down,  unless  it  were 
thought  advisable  to  retain  it  for  the  protection  of  the 
Europeans  against  riots,  and  that  in  any  case  the 
broad  space  of  cleared  ground  which  now  cuts  the 
town  in  half  might  be  partly  built  on. 

The  present  remarkable  prosperity  of  Bombay  is 
the  result  of  the  late  increase  in  the  cotton-trade,  to 
the  sudden  decline  of  which,  in  1865  and  1866,  has 
also  been  attributed  the  ruin  that  fell  upon  the  city 
in  the  last-named  year.  The  panic,  from  which  Bom- 
bay has  now  so  far  recovered  that  it  can  no  longer  be 
said  that  she  has  "not  one  merchant  solvent,"  was 
chiefly  a  reaction  from  a  speculation-madness,  in  which 
the  shares  in  a  land-reclamation  company  which  never 
commenced  its  operations  once  touched  a  thousand 
per  cent.,  but  was  intensified  by  the  passage  of  the 
English  panic-wave  of  1866  across  India  and  round 
the  world. 

Not  even  in  Mississippi  is  cotton  more  completely 
king  than  in  Bombay.  Cotton  has  collected  the  hun- 
dred steamers  and  the  thousands  of  native  boats  that 
are  anchored  between  the  Apollo  Bunder  and  Maza- 
gon;  cotton  has  built  the  great  offices  and  stores  of 
seven  and  eight  stories  high ;  cotton  has  furnished  the 
villas  on  Malabar  Hill,  that  resemble  the  New  Yorkers' 
cottages  on  Staten  Island. 

The  export  of  cotton  from  India  rose  from  five  mil- 
lions' worth  in  1859  to  thirty-eight  millions'  worth  in 
1864,  and  the  total  exports  of  Bombay  increased  in 
the  same  proportion,  while  the  population  of  the  city 
rose  from  400,000  to  1,000,000.  We  are  accustomed 
to  look  at  the  East  as  standing  still,  but  Chicago  itself 
never  took  a  grander  leap  than  did  Bombay  between 
1860  and  1864.  The  rebellion  in  America  gave  the 


BOMBAY.  301 

impetus,  but  was  not  the  sole  cause  of  this  prosperity; 
and  the  Indian  cotton-trade,  though  checked  by  the 
peace,  is  not  destroyed.  Cotton  and  jute  are  not  the 
only  Indian  raw  products  the  export  of  which  has  in- 
creased suddenly  of  late.  The  export  of  wool  increased 
twentyfold,  of  tobacco,  threefold,  of  coffee,  sevenfold 
in  the  last  six  years ;  and  the  export  of  Indian  tea  in- 
creased in  five  years  from  nothing  to  three  or  four 
hundred  thousand  pounds.  The  old  Indian  exports, 
those  which  we  associate  with  the  term  "Eastern 
trade,"  are  standing  still,  while  the  raw  produce  trade 
is  thus  increasing: — spices,  elephants'  teeth,  pearls, 
jewels,  bandannas,  shellac,  dates,  and  gum  are  all  de- 
creasing, although  the  total  exports  of  the  country 
have  trebled  in  five  years. 

India  needs  but  railroads  to  enable  her  to  compete 
successfully  with  America  in  the  growth  of  cotton,  but 
the  development  of  the  one  raw  product  will  open  out 
her  hitherto  unknown  resources. 

While  staying  at  one  of  the  great  merchant-houses 
in  the  Fort,  I  was  able  to  see  that  the  commerce  of 
Bombay  has  not  grown  up  of  itself.  With  some  ex- 
perience among  hard  workers  in  the  English  towns,  I 
was,  nevertheless,  astonished  at  the  work  got  through 
by  senior  clerks  and  junior  partners  at  Bombay. 
Although  at  first  led  away  by  the  idea  that  men  who 
wear  white  linen  suits  all  day,  and  smoke  in  rocking- 
chairs  upon  the  balcony  for  an  hour  after  breakfast, 
cannot  be  said  to  get  through  much  work,  I  soon 
found  that  men  in  merchants'  houses  at  Bombay  work 
harder  than  they  would  be  likely  to  do  at  home. 
Their  day  begins  at  6  A.M.,  and,  as  a  rule,  they  work 
from  then  till  dinner  at  8  or  9  P.M.,  taking  an  hour 
for  breakfast,  and  two  for  tiffin.  My  stay  at  Bombay 
was  during  the  hottest  fortnight  in  the  year,  and  twelve 
VOL.  n.  26 


302  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

hours'  work  in  the  day,  with  the  thermometer  never 
under  90°  all  the  night,  is  an  exhausting  life.  English- 
men could  not  long  survive  the  work,  but  the  Bombay 
merchants  are  all  Scotch.  In  British  settlements,  from 
Canada  to  Ceylon,  from  Dunedin  to  Bombay,  for  every 
Englishman  that  you  meet  who  has  worked  himself  up 
to  wealth  from  small  beginnings  without  external  aid, 
you  find  ten  Scotchmen.  It  is  strange,  indeed,  that 
Scotland  has  not  become  the  popular  name  for  the 
United  Kingdom. 

Bombay  life  is  not  without  its  compensation.  It  is 
not  always  May  or  June,  and  from  November  to  March 
the  climate  is  ail-but  perfect.  Even  in  the  hottest 
weather,  the  Byculla  Club  is  cool,  and  Mahabaleswar 
is  close  at  hand,  for  short  excursions,  whenever  the 
time  is  found;  while  the  Bombay  mango  is  a  fruit 
which  may  bear  comparison  with  the  peaches  of  Salt 
Lake  City,  or  the  melons  of  San  Francisco.  The 
Bombay  merchants  have  not  time,  indeed,  to  enjoy  the 
beauties  of  their  city,  any  more  than  Londoners  have 
to  visit  Westminster  Abbey  or  explore  the  Tower; 
and  as  for  "tropical  indolence,"  or  "Anglo-Indian 
luxury,"  the  bull-dogs  are  the  only  members  of  the 
English  community  in  India  who  can  discover  any- 
thing but  half-concealed  hardships  in  the  life.  Each 
dog  has  his  servant  to  attend  to  all  his  wants,  and, 
knowing  this,  the  cunning  brute  always  makes  the 
boy  carry  him  up  the  long  nights  of  stairs  that  lead 
to  the  private  rooms  over  the  merchants'  houses  in 
the  Fort. 

Bombay  bazaar  is  the  gayest  of  gay  scenes.  Be- 
sides the  ordinary  crowd  of  any  "native  town,"  there 
are  solemn  Jains,  copper-colored  Jews,  white-coated 
Portuguese,  Persians,  Arabs,  Catholic  priests,  bespan- 
gled nautch  girls,  and  grinning  Seedees.  The  Parsees 


BOMBAY.  303 

are  strongest  of  all  the  merchant  peoples  of  Bomhay 
in  numbers,  in  intelligence,  and  in  wealth.  Among 
the  shopkeepers  of  their  race,  there-  is  an  over-promi- 
nence of  trade  shrewdness  in  the  expression  of  the 
face,  and  in  the  shape  even  of  the  head.  The  Louvre 
bust  of  Richelieu,  in  which  we  have  the  idea  of  a 
wheedler,  is  a  common  type  in  the  Parsee  shops  of  the 
Bombay  bazaar.  The  Parsee  people,  however,  what- 
ever their  looks,  are  not  only  in  complete  possession 
of  Bombay,  but  are  the  dark-skinned  race  to  which  we 
shall  have  to  intrust  the  largest  share  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  East.  Trading  as  they  do  in  every  city  be- 
tween Galle  and  Astrakan,  but  everywhere  attached 
to  the  English  rule,  they  bear  to  us  the  relative  posi- 
tion that  the  Greeks  occupy  toward  Russia. 

Both  in  religion  and  in  education,  the  Parsees  are, 
as  a  community,  far  in  advance  of  the  Indian  Moham- 
medans, and  of  the  Hindoos.  Their  creed  has  become 
a  pure  deism,  in  which  God's  works  are  worshiped  as 
the  manifestations  or  visible  representatives  of  God 
on  earth,  fire,  the  sun,  and  the  sea  taking  the  first 
places;  although  in  the  climate  of  Bombay  prayers  to 
the  sun  must  be  made  up  of  more  supplications  than 
thanksgivings.  The  Parsee  men  are  soundly  taught, 
and  there  is  not  a  pauper  in  the  whole  tribe.  In  the 
education  and  elevation  of  women,  no  Eastern  race 
has  as  yet  done  much,  but  the  Parsees  have  done  the 
most,  and  have  paved  the  way  for  further  progress. 

In  the  matter  of  the  seclusion  of  women,  the  Parsee 
movement  has  had  some  effect  even  upon  others  than 
Parsees,  and  the  Hindoos  of  Bombay  City  stand  far 
before  even  those  of  Calcutta  in  the  earnestness  and 
success  of  their  endeavors  to  promote  the  moral  eleva- 
tion of  women.  Nothing  can  be  done  toward  the  re- 
generation of  India  so  long  as  the  women  of  all  classes 


304  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

remain  in  their  present  degradation;  and  although 
many  native  gentlemen  in  Bombay  already  recognize 
the  fact,  and  act  upon  it,  progress  is  slow,  since  there 
is  no  basis  upon  which  to  begin.  The  Hindoos  will 
not  send  their  wives  to  schools  where  there  are  Euro- 
pean lady  teachers,  for  fear  of  proselytism  taking 
place;  and  native  women  teachers  are  not  yet  to  be 
found;  hence  all  teaching  must  needs  be  left  to  men. 
Nothing,  moreover,  can  be  done  with  female  children 
in  Western  India,  where  girls  are  married  at  from  five 
to  twelve  years  old. 

I  had  not  been  two  days  in  Bombay  when  a  pla- 
card caught  my  eye,  announcing  a  performance  at  the 
theater  of  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,  in  the  Maratta  tongue ;" 
but  the  play  had  no  Friar  Lawrence,  no  apothecary, 
and  no  nurse ;  it  was  nothing  but  a  simple  Maratta 
love-tale,  followed  by  some  religious  tableaux.  In  the 
first  piece  an  Englishman  was  introduced,  and  repre- 
sented as  kicking  every  native  that  crossed  his  path 
with  the  exclamation  of  "  Damned  fool :"  at  each  repe- 
tition of  which  the  whole  house  laughed.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  this  portion  of  the  play  was  "  founded  upon 
fact."  On  my  way  home  through  the  native  town  at 
night,  I  came  on  a  marriage  procession  better  than  any 
that  I  had  seen.  A  band  of  fifers  were  screaming  the 
most  piercing  of  notes  in  front  of  an  illuminated  house, 
at  which  the  horsemen  and  carriages  were  just  arriving, 
both  men  and  women  clothed  in  jeweled  robes,  and 
silks  of  a  hundred  colors,  that  flashed  and  glittered  in 
the  blaze  of  the  red  torches.  The  procession,  like  the 
greater  number  of  the  most  gorgeous  ceremonials  of 
Bombay,  was  conducted  by  Parsees  to  celebrate  the 
marriage  of  one  of  their  own  people;  but  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  night  marriages  were  forced  upon  the  Parsees 
by  the  Hindoos,  and  one  of  the  conditions  upon  which 


THE    MOHUEEUM.  305 

the  Parsees  were  received  into  India  was,  that  their 
marriage  processions  should  take  place  at  night. 

The  Caves  of  Elephanta  have  been  many  times 
described.  The  grandest  sight  of  India,  after  the  Taj, 
is  the  three-faced  bust  of  the  Hindoo  Trinity,  or  God 
.in  his  threefold  character  of  Creator,  Preserver,  and 
Destroyer.  No  Grecian  sculpture  that  I  have  seen  so 
well  conveys  the  idea  of  Godhead.  The  Greeks  could 
idealize  man,  the  Italians  can  paint  the  saint,  but  the 
builders  of  Elephanta  had  the  power  of  executing  the 
highest  ideal  of  a  pagan  god.  The  repose  which  dis- 
tinguishes the  heads  of  the  Creator  and  Preserver  is 
not  the  meditation  of  the  saint,  but  the  calm  of  un- 
bounded power;  and  the  Destroyer's  head  portends  not 
destruction,  so  much  as  annihilation,  to  the  world. 
The  central  head  is,  in  its  mysterious  solemnity,  that 
which  the  Sphinx  should  be,  and  is  not,  but  one  at- 
tribute alone  is  common  to  the  expression  of  all  three 
faces, — the  presence  of  the  Inscrutable. 


CHAPT.ER  XVIII. 

THE    MOHUBRUM. 

ALTHOUGH  Poonah  is  the  ancient  Maratta  capital, 
and  a  thoroughly  Hindoo  city,  it  is  famed  throughout 
India  for  the  splendor  with  which  its  people  celebrate 
the  Mohammedan  Mohurrum,  so  I  timed  my  visit  in 
such  a  way  as  to  reach  the  town  upon  the  day  of  the 
"taboot  procession." 

The  ascent  from  the  Konkan,  or  flat  country  of 
26* 


306  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

Bombay,  by  the  "Western  Ghauts  to  the  table-land  of 
the  Deccan,  known  as  the  Bhore  Ghaut  incline,  in 
which  the  railway  rises  from  the  plain  2000  feet  into 
the  Deccan,  by  a  series  of  steps  sixteen  miles  in  length, 
is  far  more  striking  as  an  engineering  work  than  the 
passage  of  the  Alleghanies  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
track,  and  as  much  inferior  to  the  Sierra  Nevada  rail- 
way works.  The  views  from  the  carriage  windows  are 
singularly  like  those  in  the  Kaduganava  Pass  between 
Columbo  and  Kandy ;  in  fact,  the  Western  Ghauts  are 
of  the  same  character  as  the  mountains  of  Ceylon,  the 
hills  being  almost  invariably  either  flat-topped  or  else 
rent  by  volcanic  action  into  great  pinnacles  and  needle- 
peaks. 

The  rainy  season  had  not  commenced,  and  the  vege- 
tation that  gives  the  Ghauts  their  charm  was  wanting, 
although  the  "  mango  showers"  were  beginning,  and 
spiders  and  other  insects,  unseen  during  the  hot  wea 
ther,  were  creeping  into  the  houses  to  seek  shelter  from 
the  rains.  One  of  the  early  travelers  to  the  Deccan 
told  the  good  folks  at  home  that  after  the  rains  the 
spiders'  webs  were  so  thickly  laced  across  the  jungle 
that  the  natives  of  the  country  were  in  the  habit  of 
hiring  elephants  to  walk  before  them  and  force  a  pas- 
sage !  At  the  time  of  my  visit,  neither  webs  nor  jun- 
gle were  to  be  seen,  and  the  spiders  were  very  harm- 
less-looking fellows.  One  effect  of  the  approaching 
monsoon  was  visible  from  the  summit  of  the  Ghaut,  for 
the  bases  of  the  mountains  were  hid  by  the  low  clouds 
that  foretell  the  coming  rains.  The  inclines  are  held 
to  be  unsafe  during  the  monsoon,  but  they  are  not  so 
bad  as  the  Kotree  and  Kurrachee  line,  which  runs  only 
"weather  permitting,"  and  is  rendered  useless  by  two 
hours'  rain — a  fall  which,  luckily  for  the  shareholders, 
occurs  only  about  once  in  every  seven  years.  On  the 


THE    MOHUREUM.  307 

Bliore  Ghaut,  on  the  contrary,  220  inches  in  four 
months  is  not  unusual,  and  "the  rains"  here  take  the 
place  of  the  avalanche  of  colder  ranges,  and  carry  away 
bridges,  lines,  and  trains  themselves;  but  in  the  dry 
season  there  is  a  want  of  the  visible  presence  of  diffi- 
culties overcome,  which  detracts  from  the  interest  of 
the  line. 

At  daybreak  at  Poonah,  the  tomtom-ing,  which  had 
lasted  without  intermission  through  the  ten  days'  fast, 
came  to  a  sudden  end,  and  the  police  and  European 
magistrates  began  to  marshal  the  procession  of  the 
taboots,  or  shrines,  in  the  bazaar. 

A  proclamation  in  English  and  Maratta  was  posted 
on  the  walls,  announcing  the  order  of  the  procession 
and  the  rules  to  be  enforced.  The  orders  were  that 
the  procession  to  the  river  was  to  commence  at  7  A.M. 
and  to  end  at  11  A.M.,  and  that  tomtom-ing,  except 
during  those  hours,  would  not  be  allowed.  The  ta- 
boots of  the  light  cavalry,  of  three  regiments  of  native 
infantry,  and  of  the  followers  of  three  English  regi- 
ments of  the  line,  and  of  the  Sappers  and  Miners,  were, 
however,  to  start  at  six  o'clock;  the  order  of  preced- 
ence among  the  cantonment  or  regimental  taboots  was 
carefully  laid  down,  and  the  carrying  of  arms  for- 
bidden. 

When  I  reached  the  bazaar,  I  found  the  native 
police  were  working  in  vain  in  trying  to  force  into  line 
a  vast  throng  of  bannermen,  drummers,  and  saints, 
who  surrounded  the  various  taboots  or  models  of  the 
house  of  AH  and  Fatima  where  their  sons  Hassan  and 
Hoosein  were  born.  Some  of  the  shrines  were  of  the 
size  and  make  of  the  dolls'-houses  of  our  English 
children,  others  in  their  height  and  gorgeousness  re- 
sembled the  most  successful  of  our  burlesques  upon 
Guy  Fawkes :  some  were  borne  on  litters  by  four  men ; 


308  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

others  mounted  on  light  carts  and  drawn  by  bullocks, 
while  the  gigantic  taboot  of  the  Third  Cavalry  re- 
quired six  buffaloes  for  its  transport  to  the  river.  Many 
privates  of  our  native  infantry  regiments  had  joined 
the  procession  in  uniform,  and  it  was  as  strange  to  me 
to  see  privates  in  our  service  engaged  in  howling  round 
a  sort  of  Maypole,  and  accompanying  their  yells  with 
the  tomtom,  as  it  must  have  been  to  the  English  in 
Luckuow  in  1857  to  hear  the  bands  of  the  rebel  regi- 
ments playing  "Cheer,  boys,  cheer." 

Some  of  the  troops  in  Poonah  were  kept  within 
their  lines  all  day,  to  be  ready  to  suppress  disturbances 
caused  by  the  Moslem  fanatics,  who,  excited  by  the 
Mohurrum,  often  run  amuck  among  their  Hindoo 
neighbors.  In  old  times,  quarrels  between  the  Son- 
nites  and  Shiites,  or  orthodox  and  dissenting  Mussul- 
mans, used  to  be  added  to  those  between  Mohammed- 
ans and  Hindoos  at  the  season  of  the  Mohurrum,  but 
except  upon  the  Afghan  border  these  feuds  have  ail- 
but  died  out  now. 

At  the  head  of  the  procession  marched  a  row  of 
pipers,  producing  sounds  of  which  no  Highland  regi- 
ment would  have  felt  ashamed,  followed  by  long- 
bearded,  turban- wearing  Marattas,  on  foot  and  horse- 
back, surrounding  an  immense  pagoda-shaped  taboot 
placed  on  a  cart,  and  drawn  by  bullocks ;  boys  swing- 
ing incense  walked  before  and  followed,  and  I  remarked 
a  gigantic  cross — a  loan,  no  doubt,  from  the  Jesuit 
College  for  this  Mohammedan  festivity.  After  each 
taboot  there  came  a  band  of  Hindoo  "tigers" — men 
painted  in  thorough  imitation  of  the  jungle  king,  and 
wearing  tiger  ears  and  tails.  Sometimes,  instead  of 
tigers,  we  had  men  painted  in  the  colors  worn  by 
"  sprites"  in  an  English  pantomime,  and  all — sprites 
and  tigers — danced  in  the  fashion  of  the  medieval 


THE    MOHURRUM.  309 

mummers.  Behind  the  tigers  and  buffoons  there  fol- 
lowed women,  walking  in  their  richest  dress.  The 
nautch  girls  of  Poonah  are  reputed  the  best  in  all  the 
East,  but  the  monotonous  Bombay  nautch  is  not  to  be 
compared  with  the  Cashmere  nautch  of  Lahore. 

Some  taboots  were  guarded  on  either  side  by  sheiks 
on  horseback,  wearing  turbans  of  the  honorable  green 
which  denotes  direct  descent  from  the  Prophet,  though 
the  genealogy  is  sometimes  doubtful,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Angel  Gabriel,  who,  according  to  Mohammedan 
writers,  wears  a  green  turban,  as  being  an  "honorary" 
descendant  of  Mohammed. 

Thousands  of  men  and  women  thronged  the  road 
down  which  the  taboots  were  forced  to  pass,  or  sat  in 
the  shade  of  the  peepul  trees  until  the  taboot  of  their 
family  or  street  came  up,  and  then  followed  it,  dancing 
and  tomtom-beating  like  the  rest. 

Poonah  is  famed  for  the  grace  of  its  women  and  the 
elegance  of  their  gait.  In  the  hot  weather,  the  saree 
is  the  sole  garment  of  the  Hindoo  women,  and  lends 
grace  to  the  form  without  concealing  the  outlines  of 
the  trunk  or  the  comely  shapes  of  the  well-turned 
limbs.  The  saree  is  eight  yards  long,  but  of  such  soft 
thin  texture  that  it  makes  no  show  upon  the  person. 
It  is  a  singular  testimony  to  the  strength  of  Hindoo 
habits,  that  at  this  Mohammedan  festival  the  Moham- 
medan women  should  all  be  wearing  the  long  seamless 
saree  of  the  conquered  Hindoos. 

In  the  Mohurrum  procession  at  Poonah  there  was 
nothing  distinctively  Mohammedan.  Hindoos  joined 
in  the  festivities,  and  "  Portuguese,"  or  descendants  of 
the  slaves,  half-castes,  and  native  Christians  who  at  the 
time  of  the  Portuguese  occupation  of  Surat  assumed 
high-sounding  names  and  titles,  and  now  form  a  large 
proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  towns  in  the  Bombay 


310  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

Presidency.  The  temptation  of  a  ten  days'  holiday  is 
too  great  to  be  resisted  by  the  prejudices  of  even  the 
Christians  or  Hindoos. 

The  procession  ended  at  the  Ghauts  on  the  river- 
side, where  the  taboots,  one  after  the  other,  made 
their  exit  from  ten  days  of  glory  into  unfathomable 
slush;  and  such  was  the  number  of  the  "camp  ta- 
boots," as  those  of  the  native  soldiers  in  our  service 
are  styled,  and  the  "  bazaar  taboots,"  or  city  con- 
tributions, that  the  immersion  ceremonies  were  not 
completed  when  the  illumination  and  fireworks  com- 
menced. 

After  dark,  the  bazaar  was  lit  with .  colored  fires, 
and  with  the  ghostly  paper-lanterns  that  give  no  light; 
and  the  noise  of  tomtoms  and  fire-crackers  recom- 
menced in  spite  of  proclamations  and  police-rules. 
Were  there  in  Indian  streets  anything  to  burn,  the 
Mohurrum  would  cause  as  many  fires  in  Hindostan  as 
Independence-day  in  the  United  States;  but,  although 
houses  are  burnt  out  daily  in  the  bazaars,  they  are 
never  burnt  down,  for  nothing  but  water  can  damage 
mud.  We  could  have  played  our  way  into  Lucknow 
in  1857  with  pumps  and  hoses  at  least  as  fast  as  we 
contrived  to  batter  a  road  into  it  with  shot  and  shell. 

During  the  day  I  had  been  amused  with  the  say- 
ings of  some  British  recruits,  who  were  watching  the 
immersion  ceremonies,  but  in  the  evening  one  of  them 
was  in  the  bazaar,  uproariously  drunk,  kicking  every 
native  against  whom  he  stumbled,  and  shouting  to  an 
officer  of  another  regiment,  who  did  not  like  to  inter- 
fere: "I'm  a  private  soldier,  I  know,  but  I'm  a  gentle- 
man :  I  know  what  the  hatmosphere  is,  I  do;  and  I 
knows  a  cloud  when  I  sees  it,  damned  if  I  don't."  On 
the  other  hand,  in  some  fifty  thousand  natives  holiday- 
making  that  day,  many  of  them  Christians  and  low- 


THE    MOHURRUM.  311 

caste  men,  with  no  prejudice  against  drink,  a  drunken 
man  was  not  to  be  seen. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  harm  done  to 
the  English  name  in  India  by  the  conduct  of  drunken 
soldiers  and  " European  loafers."  The  latter  class  con- 
sists chiefly  of  discharged  railway  guards  and  runaway 
sailors  from  Calcutta,- — men  who,  traveling  across 
India  and  living  at  free  quarters  on  the  trembling 
natives,  become  ruffianly  beyond  description  from  the 
effect  upon  their  originally  brutal  natures  of  the  pos- 
session of  unusual  power. 

The  popularity  of  Mohammedan  festivals  such  as 
that  of  the  Mohurrum  has  been  one  of  the  many 
causes  which  have  led  us  to  believe  that  the  Moham- 
medans form  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Hindostan,  but  the  census  in  the  Northwest 
Provinces  revealed  the  fact  that  they  had  there  been 
popularly  set  down  as  three  times  as  numerous  as  they 
are,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  same  is  the  case  through- 
out all  India.  Not  only  are  the  Indian  Mohammedans 
few,  but  their  Mohammedanism  sits  lightly  on  them  : 
they  are  Hindoos  in  caste  distinctions,  in  ceremonies, 
in  daily  life,  and  ail-but  Hindoos  in  their  actual  wor- 
ship. On  the  other  hand,  this  Mohurrum  showed  me 
that  the  Hindoos  do  not  scruple  to  attend  the  com- 
memoration of  Hassan  and  Hoosein.  At  Benares  there 
is  a  temple  which  is  used  in  common  by  Mohammedans 
and  Hindoos,  and  throughout  India,  among  the  low- 
caste  people,  there  is  now  little  distinction  between 
the  religions.  The  descendants  of  the  Mohammedan 
conquerors,  who  form  the  leading  families  in  several 
native  States,  and  also  in  Oude  itself,  are  among  the 
most  dangerous  of  our  Indian  subjects,  but  they  ap- 
pear to  have  but  little  hold  upon  the  humble  classes 
of  their  fellow- worshipers,  and  their  attempts  to  stir 


312  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

up  their  people  to  active  measures  against  the  English 
have  always  failed.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have 
hitherto  somewhat  ignored  the  claims  upon  our 
consideration  of  the  Indian  Mohammedans  and  still 
more  numerous  hill-tribes,  and  permitted  our  govern- 
ments to  act  as  though  the  Hindoos  and  the  Sikhs 
were  the  only  inhabitants  of  Hindostan. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ENGLISH   LEARNING. 

THE  English  traveler  who  crosses  India  from  Cal- 
cutta to  Bombay  is  struck  with  the  uncivilized  condi- 
tion of  the  land.  He  has  heard  in  England  of  palaces 
and  temples,  of  art  treasures  and  of  native  poetry,  of 
the  grace  of  the  Hindoo  maidens,  of  Cashmere  shawls, 
of  the  Taj,  of  the  Pearl  Mosque,  of  a  civilization  as 
perfect  as  the  European  and  as  old  as  the  Chinese. 
When  he  lands  and  surveys  the  people,  he  finds  them 
naked  barbarians,  plunged  in  the  densest  ignorance 
and  superstition,  and  safe  only  from  extermination  be- 
cause the  European  cannot  dwell  permanently  in  the 
climate  of  their  land.  The  stories  we  are  told  at  home 
are  in  no  sense  false: — the  Hindoos,  of  all  classes,  are 
graceful  in  their  carriage;  their  tombs  and  mosques 
are  of  extraordinary  beauty,  their  art  patterns  the  de- 
spair of  our  best  craftsmen  ;  the  native  poetry  is  at 
least  equal  to  our  own,  and  the  Taj  the  noblest  build- 
ing in  the  world.  Every  word  is  true,  but  the  whole 
forms  but  a  singularly  small  portion  of  the  truth.  The 


ENGLISH  LEARNING.  313 

religious  legends,  the  art  patterns,  the  perfect  manner 
and  the  graceful  eye  and  taste  seem  to  have  descended 
to  the  Hindoos  of  to-day  from  a  generation  whose 
general  civilization  they  have  forgotten.  The  poetry 
is  confined  to  a  few  members  of  a  high- caste  race,  and 
is  mainly  an  importation  from  abroad ;  the  architec- 
ture is  that  of  the  Moslem  conquerors.  Shan  Jehan, 
a  Mohammedan  emperor  and  a -foreigner,  built  the 
Taj;  Akbar  the  Great,  another  Turk,  was  the  designer 
of  the  Pearl  Mosque;  and  the  Hindoos  can  no  more  be 
credited  with  the  architecture  of  their  early  conquerors 
than  they  can  with  the  railways  and  bridges  of  their 
English  rulers,  or  with  the  waterworks  of  Bombay  City. 
The  Sikhs  are  chiefly  foreigners;  but  of  the  purely 
native  races,  the  Kajpoots  are  only  fine  barbarians,  the 
Bengalees  mere  savages,  and  the  tribes  of  Central  In- 
dia but  little  better  than  the  Australian  aborigines  or 
the  brutes.  Throughout  India  there  are  remains  of  an 
early  civilization,  but  it  has  vanished  as  completely  as 
it  has  in  Egypt;  and  the  Cave-temples  stand  as  far 
from  the  daily  life  of  Hindostan  as  the  Pyramids  do 
from  that  of  Egypt. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  decline  has  been  extremely 
rapid  since  the  day  when  we  arrived  in  India.  J  ust  as 
it  is  almost  impossible,  by  any  exertion  of  the  mind,  to 
realize  in  Mexico  the  fact  that  the  present  degraded 
Aztecs  are  the  same  people  whom  the  Spaniards  found, 
only  some  three  hundred  years  ago,  dwelling  in  splen- 
did palaces,  and  worshiping  their  unknown  gods  in 
golden  temples  through  the  medium  of  a  sacred  tongue, 
so  now  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  pauperized  in- 
habitants of  Orissa  and  the  miserable  peasantry  of  Oude 
are  the  sons  of  the  chivalrous  warriors  who  fought  in 
the  last  century  against  Clive. 

The  truth  is,  that  in  surveying  Oriental  empires 
VOL.  n.  27 


314  GEEATER   BRITAIN. 

from  a  distance,  we  are  dazzled  by  the  splendor  of  the 
kings  and  priests;  drawing  near,  we  tind  an  oppressed 
and  miserable  slave  class,  from  whose  hard  earnings 
the  wealth  of  the  great  is  wrung;  called  on  to  govern 
the  country,  we  extinguish  the  kings  and  priests  in 
the  fashion  in  which  Captain  Hodson,  in  1857,  shot 
the  last  sons  of  the  Imperial  family  of  India  in  a  dry 
ditch,  while  we  were  transporting  the  last  Mogul, 
along  with  our  native  thieves,  in  a  convict-ship  to 
British  Burmah.  There  remains  the  slave  class,  and 
little  else.  We  may  select  a  few  of  these  to  be  our 
policemen  and  torturers-in-chief,  we  may  pick  another 
handful  to  wear  red  coats  and  be  our  guards  and  the 
executioners  of  their  countrymen;  we  may  teach  a 
few  to  chatter  some  words  of  English,  and  then, 
calling  them  great  scoundrels,  may  set  them  in  our 
railway  stations  and  our  offices ;  but  virtually,  in  an- 
nexing any  Eastern  country,  we  destroy  the  ruling 
class,  and  reduce  the  government  to  a  mere  imperial- 
ism, where  one  man  rules  and  the  rest  are  slaves.  No 
parallel  can  be  drawn  in  Europe  or  North  America  to 
that  state  of  things  which  exists  wherever  we  carry 
our  arms  in  the  East:  were  the  President  and  Congress 
in  America,  and  all  the  wealthy  merchants  of  the  great 
towns,  to  be  destroyed  to-morrow,  the  next  day  would 
see  the  government  proceeding  quietly  in  the  hands  of 
another  set  every  bit  as  intelligent,  as  wise,  and  good. 
In  a  lesser  degree,  the  same  would  be  the  case  in 
England  or  in  France.  The  best  example  that  could 
be  given  nearer  home  of  that  which  occurs  continually 
in  the  East  would  be  one  which  would  suppose  that 
the  Emperor  and  nobility  in  Russia  were  suddenly  de- 
stroyed, and  the  country  left  in  the  hands  of  the  British 
ambassador  and  the  late  serfs.  Even  this  example 
would  fail  to  convey  a  notion  of  the  extent  of  the 


ENGLISH  LEARNING.  315 

revolution  which  takes  place  on  the  conquest  by 
Britain  of  an  Eastern  country;  for  in  the  East  the 
nobles  are  better  taught  and  the  people  more  ignorant 
than  they  are  in  Russia,  and  the  change  causes  a 
more  complete  destruction  of  poetry,  of  literature, 
and  of  art. 

It  being  admitted,  then,  that  we  are  in  the  position 
of  having,  in  Hindostan,  a  numerous  and  ignorant, 
but  democratic  people  to  govern  from  without,  there 
comes  the  question  of  what  should  be  the  general 
character  of  our  government.  The  immediate  ques- 
tions of  the  day  may  be  left  to  our  subordinates  in 
India ;  but  the  direction  and  the  tendencies  of  legis- 
lation are  matters  for  us  at  home.  There  can  be 
nothing  more  ridiculous  than  the  position  of  those  of 
our  civilians  in  India  who,  while  they  treat  the  natives 
with  profound  contempt,  are  continually  crying  out 
against  government  from  at  home,  on  the  ground  set 
forth  in  the  shibboleth  of  "  India  for  the  Indians."  If 
India  is  to  be  governed  by  the  British  race  at  all,  it 
must  be  governed  from  Great  Britain.  The  general 
conditions  of  our  rule  must  be  dictated  at  London  by 
the  English  people',  and  nothing  but  the  execution  of 
our  decrees,  the  collection  of  evidence,  and  the  framing 
of  mere  rules,  left  to  our  subordinates  in  the  East. 

First  among  the  reforms  that  must  be  introduced 
from  London  is  the  general  instruction  in  the  English 
language  of  the  native  population.  Except  upon  a 
theory  that  will  fairly  admit  of  the  forcing  upon  a 
not  unwilling  people  of  this  first  of  all  great  means  of 
civilization,  our  presence  in  India  is  wholly  indefensi- 
ble. Unless  also  that  be  done,  our  presence  in  India, 
or  that  of  some  nation  stronger  than  us  and  not  more 
scrupulous,  must  endure  forever ;  for  it  is  plainly  im- 
possible that  a  native  government  capable  of  holding 


316  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

its  own  against  Russia  and  America  can  otherwise  be 
built  up  in  Hindostan.  Upon  tbe  contrary  supposi- 
tion,— namely,  that  we  do  not  intend  at  any  time  to 
quit  our  hold  on  India, — the  instruction  of  the  people 
in  our  language  becomes  still  more  important.  Upon 
the  second  theory,  we  must  teach  them  English,  the 
language  of  the  British  government;  upon  the  first, 
English,  the  language  of  the  world.  Upon  either 
theory,  we  must  teach  them  English.  Nothing  can 
better  show  the  trivial  character  of  the  much-talked- 
of  reforms  introduced  into  India  in  the  last  few  years, 
since  our  Queen  has  assumed  the  imperial  throne  of 
Hindostan,  than  the  fact  that  no  progress  whatever 
has  been  made  in  a  matter  of  far  more  grave  import- 
ance than  are  any  number  of  miles  of  railway,  canal, 
or  Grand  Trunk  roads.  Our  civilians  in  India  tell  us 
that,  if  you  teach  the  natives  English,  you  expose 
them  to  the  attacks  of  Christian  missionaries,  and  us 
to  revolt — an  exposure  which  speaks  not  too  highly  of 
the  government  which  is  forced  to  make  it.  Our  mili- 
tary officers,  naturally  hating  the  country  to  which 
they  now  are  exiled,  instead  of  being  sent  as  formerly 
of  their  own  free  will,  tell  you  that  every  native  who 
can  speak  English  is  a  scoundrel,  a  liar,  and  a  thief, 
which  is,  perhaps,  if  we  except  the  Parsees,  not  far 
from  true  at  present,  when  teaching  is  given  only  to 
a  few  lads,  who  thus  acquire  a  monopoly  of  the  offices 
in  which  money  passes  through  native  hands.  Their 
opinion  has  no  bearing  whatever  upon  a  general  in- 
struction of  the  people,  under  which  we  should  evi- 
dently be  able  to  pick  our  men,  as  we  now  pick  them 
for  all  employments  in  which  a  knowledge  of  English 
is  not  required. 

A  mere  handful  of  Spaniards  succeeded  in  natural- 
izing their  language  in  a  country  twice  as  large  as 


ENGLISH  LEARNING.  317 

Europe :  in  the  whole  of  South  America,  the  Central 
States,  and  Mexico.  Not  only  there,  but  in  the  United 
States,  the  Utes  and  Comanches,  wild  as  they  are, 
speak  Spanish,  while  their  own  language  is  forgotten. 
In  the  west  of  Mexico  there  is  no  trace  of  pure  Spanish 
blood,  there  is  even  comparatively  little  mixture — yet 
Spanish,  and  that  of  the  best,  is  spoken,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  every  other  language,  in  Manzanillo  and 
Acapulco.  This  phenomenon  is  not  confined  to  the 
Western  world.  In  Bombay  Presidency,  five  millions 
of  so-called  Portuguese — who,  however,  for  the  most 
part  are  pure  Hindoos — speak  a  Latin  tongue,  and 
worship  at  the  temples  of  the  Christian  God.  French 
makes  progress  in  Saigon,  Dutch  in  Java.  In  Canada, 
we  find  the  Huron  Indians  French  in  language  and 
religion.  English  alone,  it  would  seem,  cannot  be 
pressed  upon  any  of  the  dark-skinned  tribes.  In  New 
Zealand,  the  Maories  know  no  English;  in  Natal,  the 
Zulus;  in  India,  the  Hindoos.  The  Dutch,  finally  ex- 
pelled from  South  Africa  in  1815  and  from  Ceylon  in 
1802,  have  yet  more  hold  by  their  tongue  upon  the 
natives  of  those  lands  than  have  the  English — masters 
of  them  since  the  Dutch  expulsion. 

To  the  early  abolition  or  total  non-existence  of 
slavery  in  the  British  colonies,  we  may,  perhaps,  trace 
our  unfortunate  failure  to  spread  our  mother-tongue. 
Dutch,  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  all  practiced  a  slavery 
of  the  widest  kind;  all  had  about  them  not  native 
servants,  frequently  changing  from  the  old  master  to 
the  new,  and  passing  unheeded  to  whatever  service 
money  could  tempt  them  to  engage  in,  but  domestic 
slaves,  bred  up  in  the  family,  and  destined,  probably, 
to  die  within  the  house  where  they  were  reared,  to 
whom  the  language  of  the  master  was  taught,  because 
your  Spanish  grandee,  with  power  of  life  and  death 

27* 


318  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

over  his  family  slaves,  was  not  the  man  to  condescend 
to  learn  his  servants'  tongue  in  order  that  his  com- 
mands should  he  more  readily  understood.  Another 
reason  may  have  caused  the  Portuguese  and  other 
dominant  races  of  the  later  middle  ages  to  have  in- 
sisted that  their  slaves  should  learn  the  language  of 
the  master  and  the  government;  namely,  that  in  learn- 
ing the  new,  the  servile  families  would  speedily  forget 
the  older  tongue,  and  thus  become  as  incapable  of 
mixing  in  the  conspiracies  and  insurrections  of  their 
brother  natives  as  Pyrenean  shepherd  dogs  of  con- 
sorting with  their  progenitors,  the  wolves.  Whatever 
their  reasons,  however,  the  Spaniards  succeeded  where 
we  have  failed. 

The  greatest  of  our  difficulties  are  the  financial. 
No  cheap  system  is  workable  by  us,  and  our  dear  sys- 
tem we  have  not  the  means  to  work.  The  success  of 
our  rule  immediately  depends  upon  the  purity  and  good 
feeling  of  the  rulers,  yet  there  are  villages  in  British 
India  where  the  people  have  never  seen  a  white  man, 
and  oft'  the  main  roads,  and  outside  the  district  towns, 
the  sight  of  a  European  official  is  extremely  rare. 
To  the  inhabitants  of  the  greater  portion  of  rural 
India,  the  governor  who  symbolizes  British  rule  is  a 
cruel  and  corrupt  Hindoo  policeman;  himself  not  im- 
probably a  Bengal  mutineer  in  1857,  or  drawn  from 
the  classes  whom  our  most  ignorant  sepoys  themselves 
despised.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  this  vital  defect  can 
be  amended,  except  by  the  slow  process  of  raising  up 
a  native  population  that  we  can  trust  and  put  in  office, 
and  this  is  impossible  unless  we  encourage  and  reward 
the  study  of  the  English  tongue.  The  most  needed  of 
all  social  reforms  in  India,  an  improvement  in  the  pres- 
ent thoroughly  servile  condition  of  the  native  women, 
could  itself  in  no  way  be  more  easily  brought  about 


ENGLISH  LEARNING.  319 

than  by  the  familiarization  of  the  Hindoos  with  Eng- 
lish literature ;  and  that  greatest  of  all  the  curses  of 
India,  false- swearing  in  the  courts,  would  undoubtedly 
be  both  directly  and  indirectly  checked  by  the  intro- 
duction of  our  language.  The  spread  of  the  English 
tongue  need  be  no  check  to  that  of  the  ancient  clas- 
sical languages  of  the  East;  the  two  studies  would  go 
hand  in  hand.  It  is  already  a  disgrace  to  us  that  while 
we  spend  annually  in  India  a  large  sum  upon  our  chap- 
lains and  church  schools,  we  toss  only  one-hundredth 
part  of  the  sum — a  paltry  few  thousands  of  rupees — to 
the  native  colleges,  where  the  most  venerable  of  lan- 
guages— Sanscrit,  Arabic,  and  Persian — are  taught  by 
the  men  who  alone  can  thoroughly  understand  them. 
At  the  moment  when  England,  Germany,  and  America 
are  struggling  for  the  palm  in  the  teaching  of  Oriental 
literature — when  Oxford,  Edinburgh,  and  London  are 
contending  with  each  other,  and  with  Berlin,  Yale,  and 
Harvard,  in  translating  and  explaining  Eastern  books — 
our  government  in  India  is  refusing  the  customary  help 
to  the  publication  of  Sanscrit  works,  and  starving  the 
teachers  of  the  language. 

So  long  as  the  natives  remain  ignorant  of  the 
English  tongue,  they  remain  ignorant  of  all  the  civil- 
ization of  our  time — ignorant  alike  of  political  and 
physical  science,  of  philosophy  and  true  learning.  It 
is  needless  to  say  that,  if  French  or  German  were 
taught  them  instead  of  English,  they  would  be  as 
well  off  in  this  respect;  but  English,  as  the  tongue  of 
the  ruling  race,  has  the  vast  advantage  that  its  acqui- 
sition by  the  Hindoos  will  soon  place  the  government 
of  India  in  native  hands,  and  thus,  gradually  relieving 
us  of  an  almost  intolerable  burden,  will  civilize  and 
set  free  the  people  of  Hindostan. 


320  GREATER    BRITAIN. 


CHAPTEE  XX. 

INDIA. 

"ALL  general  observations  upon  India  are  necessarily 
absurd,''  said  to  me  at  Simla  a  distinguished  officer  of 
the  Viceroy's  government;  but,  although  this  is  true 
enough  of  theories  that  bear  upon  the  customs,  social 
or  religious,  of  the  forty  or  fifty  peoples  which  make 
up  what  in  England  we  style  the  "Hindoo  race,"  it  has 
no  bearing  on  the  consideration  of  the  policy  which 
should  guide  our  actual  administration  of  the  Empire. 

England  in  the  East  is  not  the  England  that  we 
know.  Flousy  Britannia,  with  her  anchor  and  ship, 
becomes  a  mysterious  Oriental  despotism,  ruling  a 
sixth  of  the  human  race,  nominally  for  the  natives' 
own  good,  and  certainly  for  no  one  else's,  by  laws  and 
in  a  manner  opposed  to  every  tradition  and  every  pre- 
judice of  the  whole  of  the  various  tribes  of  which  this 
vast  population  is  composed  —  scheming,  annexing, 
out-mano3uvring  Russia,  and  sometimes,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  out-lying  Persia  herself. 

In  our  island  home,  we  plume  ourselves  upon  our 
hatred  of  political  extraditions :  we  would  scorn  to  ask 
the  surrender  of  a  political  criminal  of  our  own,  we 
would  die  in  the  last  ditch  sooner  than  surrender  those 
of  another  crown.  What  a  contrast  we  find  to  this 
when  we  look  at  our  conduct  in  the  East !  During  the 
mutiny  of  1857,  some  of  our  rebel  subjects  escaped 
into  the  Portuguese  territory  at  Goa.  We  demanded 


INDIA.  321 

their  extradition,  which  the  Portuguese  refused.  We 
insisted.  The  offer  we  finally  accepted  was,  that  they 
should  be  transported  to  the  Portuguese  settlement  at 
Timor,  we  supplying  transports.  An  Indian  trans- 
port conveying  these  men  to  their  island  grave,  but 
carrying  the  British  flag,  touched  at  Batavia  in  1858, 
to  the  astonishment  of  the  honest  Dutchmen,  who 
knew  England  as  a  defender  of  national  liberty  in 
Europe. 

Although  despotic,  our  government  of  India  is  not 
bad ;  indeed,  the  hardest  thing  that  can  be  said  of  it  is 
that  it  is  too  good.  We  do  our  duty  by  the  natives 
manfully,  but  they  care  little  about  that,  and  we  are 
continually  hurting  their  prejudices  and  offending 
them  in  small  things,  to  which  they  attach  more  im- 
portance than  they  do  to  great.  To  conciliate  the  Hin- 
doos, we  should  spend  £10,000  a  year  in  support  of 
native  literature  to  please  the  learned,  and  £10,000  on 
fireworks  to  delight  the  wealthy  and  the  low-caste  peo- 
ple. Instead  of  this,  we  worry  them  with  municipal 
institutions  and  benevolent  inventions  that  they  cannot 
and  will  not  understand.  The  attempt  to  introduce 
trial  by  jury  into  certain  parts  of  India  was  laudable, 
but  it  has  ended  in  one  of  those  failures  which  discredit 
the  government  in  the  eyes  of  its  own  subordinates. 
If  there  is  a  European  foreman  of  jury,  the  natives 
salaam  to  him,  and  ask:  "What  does  the  sahib  say?" 
If  not,  they  look  across  the  court  to  the  native  barris- 
ters, who  hold  up  fingers,  each  of  which  means  lOOrs., 
and  thus  bid  against  each  other  for  the  verdict,  for, 
while  natives  as  a  rule  are  honest  in  their  personal  or 
individual  dealings,  yet  in  places  of  trust — railway 
clerkships,  secretaryships  of  departments,  and  so  on — 
they  are  almost  invariably  willing  to  take  bribes. 

Throughout  India,  such  trials  as  are  not  before  a 


322  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

jury  are  conducted  with  the  aid  of  native  assessors  as 
members  of  the  court.  This  works  almost  as  badly  as 
the  jury  does,  the  judge  giving  his  decision  without 
any  reference  to  the  opinion  of  the  assessors.  The 
story  runs  that  the  only  use  of  assessors  is,  that  in  an 
appeal — where  the  judge  and  assessors  had  agreed — 
the  advocate  can  say  that  the  judge  "  has  abdicated  his 
functions,  and  yielded  to  the  absurd  opinion  of  a  couple 
of  ignorant  and  dishonest  natives," — or,  if  the  judge 
had  gone  against  his  client  in  spite  of  the  assessors 
being  inclined  tfre  other  way,  that  the  judge  "has  de- 
cided in  the  teeth  of  all  experienced  and  impartial  na- 
tive opinion,  as  declared  by  the  voices  of  two  honest 
and  intelligent  assessors." 

Our  introduction  of  juries  is  not  an  isolated  instance 
of  our  somewhat  blind  love  for  "progress."  If  in  the 
already-published  portions  of  the  civil  code — for  in- 
stance, the  parts  which  relate  to  succession,  testament- 
ary and  intestate — you  read  in  the  illustrations  York 
for  Delhi,  and  Pimlico  for  Sultanpore,  there  is  not  a 
word  to  show  that  the  *ode  is  meant  for  India,  or  for 
an  Oriental  race  at  all.  It  is  true  that  the  testamentary 
portion  of  the  code  applies  at  present  only  to  European 
residents  in  India;  but  the  advisability  of  extending  it 
to  natives  is  under  consideration,  and  this  extension 
is  only  a  matter  of  time.  The  result  of  over-great 
rapidity  of  legislation,  and  of  unyielding  adherence  to 
English  or  Roman  models  in  the  Indian  codes,  must  be 
that  our  laws  will  never  have  the  slightest  hold  upon 
the  people,  and  that,  if  we  are  swept  from  India,  our 
laws  will  vanish  with  us.  The  "Western  character  of 
our  codes,  and  their  want  of  elasticity  and  of  adapta- 
bility to  Eastern  conditions,  is  one  among  the  many 
causes  of  our  unpopularity. 

The  old-school  Hindoos  fear  that  we  aim  at  subvert- 


INDIA.  323 

ing  all  their  dearest  and  most  venerable  institutions, 
and  the  free-thinkers  of  Calcutta  and  the  educated  na- 
tives hate  us  because,  while  we  preach  culture  and 
progress,  we  give  them  no  chance  of  any  but  a  subordi- 
nate career.  The  discontent  of  the  first-named  class 
we  can  gradually  allay,  ,by  showing  them  the  ground- 
lessness of  their  suspicions;  but  the  shrewd  Bengalee 
baboos  are  more  difficult  to  deal  with,  and  can  be  met 
only  in  one  way — namely,  by  the  employment  of  the 
natives  in  offices  of  high  trust,  under  the  security  af- 
forded by  the  infliction  of  the  most  degrading  penal- 
ties on  proof  of  the  smallest  corruption.  One  of  the 
points  in  which  the  policy  of  Akbar  surpassed  our  own 
was  in  the  association  of  qualified  Hindoos  with  his 
Mohammedan  fellow-countrymen  in  high  places  in  his 
government.  The  fact,  moreover,  that  native  govern- 
ments are  still  preferred  to  British  rule,  is  a  strong  ar- 
gument in  favor  of  the  employment  by  us  of  natives; 
for,  roughly  speaking,  their  governmental  system  dif- 
fers from  ours  only  in  the  employment  of  native  officers 
instead  of  English.  There  is  not  now  existent  a  thor- 
oughly native  government;  at  some  time  or  other,  we 
have  controlled  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  the  govern- 
ments of  all  the  native  States.  To  study  purely  native 
rule,  we  should  have  to  visit  Caboul  or  Herat,  and 
watch  the  Afghan  princes  putting  out  each  other's 
eyes,  while  their  people  are  engaged  in  never-ending 
wars,  or  in  murdering  strangers  in  the  name  of  God. 

Natives  might  more  safely  be  employed  to  fill  the 
higher  than  the  lower  offices.  It  is  more  easy  to  find 
honest  and  competent  native  governors  or  councilmen 
than  honest  and  efficient  native  clerks  and  policemen. 
Moreover,  natives  have  more  temptations  to  be  corrupt, 
and  more  facilities  for  being  so  with  safety,  in  low  posi- 
tions than  in  high.  A  native  policeman  or  telegraph 


324  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

official  can  take  his  bribe  without  fear  of  detection  by 
his  European  chief;  riot  so  a  native  governor,  with 
European  subordinates  about  him. 

The  common  Anglo-Indian  objections  to  the  employ- 
ment of  natives  in  our  service  are,  when  examined, 
found  to  apply  only  to  the  employment  of  incompetent 
natives.  To  say  that  the  native  lads  of  Bengal,  edu- 
cated in  our  Calcutta  colleges,  are  half  educated  and 
grossly  immoral,  is  to  say  that,  under  a  proper  system 
of  selection  of  officers,  they  could  never  come  to  be 
employed.  All  that  is  necessary  at  the  moment  is  that 
we  should  concede  the  principle  by  appointing,  year 
by  year,  more  natives  to  high  posts,  and  that,  by  hold- 
ing the  civil  service  examinations  in  India  as  well  as 
in  England,  and  by  establishing  throughout  India 
well-regulated  schools,  we  should  place  the  competent 
native  youths  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  English. 

That  we  shall  ever  come  to  be  thoroughly  popular 
in  India  is  not  to  be  expected.  By  the  time  the  old 
ruling  families  have  died  out,  or  completely  lost  their 
power,  the  people  whom  we  rescued  from  their  oppres- 
sion will  have  forgotten  that  the  oppression  ever  ex- 
isted, and  as  long  as  the  old  families  last,  they  will 
hate  us  steadily.  One  of  the  documents  published  in 
the  Gazette  of  India,  while  I  was  at  Simla,  was  from  the 
pen  of  Asudulla  Muhamadi,  one  of  the  best-known 
Mohammedans  of  the  Northwest  Provinces.  His  griev- 
ances were  the  cessation  of  the  practice  of  granting 
annuities  to  the  "sheiks  of  noble  families,"  the  con- 
ferring of  the  "  high  offices  of  Mufti,  Sudr'-Ameen, 
and  Tahsildar,"  on  persons  not  of  "  noble  extraction," 
"  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  higher  and  lower 
classes  on  the  same  footing,  without  distinction,"  "the 
desire  that  women  should  be  treated  like  men  in  every 
respect,"  and  "the  formation  of  English  schools  for 


INDIA.  325 

the  education  of  girls  of  the  lower  order."  He  ended 
his  State  paper  by  pointing  out  the  ill  effects  of  the 
practice  of  conferring  on  the  poor  "  respectable  berths, 
thereby  enabling  them  to  indulge  in  luxuries  which 
their  fathers  never  dreamt  of,  and  to  play  the  upstart;" 
and  declared  that  to  a  time-honored  system  of  class 
government  there  had  succeeded  "a  state  of  things 
which  I  cannot  find  words  to  express."  It  is  not  likely 
that  our  rule  will  ever  have  much  hold  on  the  class 
that  Asudulla  represents,  for  not  only  is  our  govern- 
ment in  India  a  despotism,  but  its  tendency  is  to 
become  an  imperialism,  or  despotism  exercised  over  a 
democratic  people,  such  as  we  see  in  France,  and  are 
commencing  to  see  in  Russia. 

We  are  leveling  all  ranks  in  India;  we  are  raising 
the  humblest  men,  if  they  will  pass  certain  examina- 
tions, to  posts  which  we  refuse  to  the  most  exalted  of 
nobles  unless  they  can  pass  higher.  A  clever  son  of 
a  bheestie,  or  sweeper,  if  he  will  learn  English,  not 
only  may,  but  must  rise  to  be  a  railway  baboo,  or 
deputy-collector  of  customs;  whereas  for  Hindoo  rajahs 
or  Mohammedan  nobles  of  Delhi  creation,  there  is  no 
chance  of  anything  but  gradual  decline  of  fortune. 
Even  our  Star  of  India  is  democratic  in  its  working: 
we  refuse  it  to  men  of  the  highest  descent,  to  confer  it 
on  self-made  viziers  of  native  States,  or  others  who 
were  shrewd  enough  to  take  our  side  during  the 
rebellion.  All  this  is  very  modern,  and  full  of  "  prog- 
ress," no  doubt;  but  it  is  progress  toward  imperialism, 
or  equality  of  conditions  under  paternal  despotism. 

Not  only  does  the  democratic  character  of  our  rule 
set  the  old  families  against  us,  but  it  leads  also  to  the 
failure  of  our  attempt  to  call  around  us  &  middle  class, 
an  educated  thinking  body  of  natives  with  something 
to  lose,  who,  seeing  that  we  are  ruling  India  for  her 
VOL.  n.  28 


326  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

own  good,  would  support  us  heart  and  soul,  and  form 
the  best  of  bucklers  for  our  dominion.  As  it  is,  the 
attempt  has  long  been  made  in  name,  but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  we  have  humbled  the  upper  class,  and  failed 
to  raise  a  middle  class  to  take  its  place.  We  have 
crushed  the  prince  without  setting  up  the  trader  in  his 
stead. 

The  wide-spread  hatred  of  the  English  does  not 
prove  that  they  are  bad  rulers ;  it  is  merely  the  hatred 
that  Easterns  always  bear  their  masters ;  yet  masters 
the  Hindoos  will  have.  Even  the  enlightened  natives 
do  not  look  with  longing  toward  a  future  of  self-govern- 
ment, however  distant.  Most  intelligent  Hindoos  would 
like  to  see  the  Russians  drive  us  out  of  India,  not  that 
any  of  them  think  that  the  Russians  would  be  better 
rulers  or  kinder  men,  but  merely  for  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  their  traditional  oppressors  beaten.  What,  then, 
are  we  to  do?  The  only  justification  for  our  presence 
in  India  is  the  education  for  freedom  of  the  Indian 
races ;  but  at  this  moment  they  will  not  have  freedom 
at  a  gift,  and  many  Indmn  statesmen  declare  that  no 
amount  of  education  will  ever  fit  them  for  it.  For  a 
score  of  centuries  the  Hindoos  have  bribed  and  taken 
bribes,  and  corruption  has  eaten  into  the  national  char- 
acter so  deeply,  that  those  who  are  the  best  of  judges 
declare  that  it  can  never  be  washed  out.  The  analogy 
of  the  rise  of  other  races  leads  us  to  hope,  however, 
that  the  lapse  of  time  will  be  sufficient  to  raise  the 
Hindoos  as  it  has  raised  the  Huns. 

The  ancients  believed  that  the  neighborhood  of  frost 
and  snow  was  fatal  to  philosophy  and  to  the  arts ;  to 
the  Carthaginians,  Egyptians,  and  Phoenicians,  the  in- 
habitants of  Gaul,  of  Germany,  and  of  Britain  were 
rude  barbarians  of  the  frozen  North,  that  no  con- 
ceivable lapse  of  time  could  convert  into  anything 


INDIA.  327 

much  better  than  talking  bears — a  piece  of  empiricism 
which  has  a  close  resemblance  to  our  view  of  India. 
It  is  idle  to  point  to  the  tropics  and  say  that  free  com- 
munities do  not  exist  within  those  limits:  the  map 
of  the  world  will  show  that  freedom  exists  only  in  the 
homes  of  the  English  race.  France,  the  authoress  of 
modern  liberty,  has  failed  as  yet  to  learn  how  to  retain 
the  boon  for  which  she  is  ever  ready  to  shed  her  blood ; 
Switzerland,  a  so-called  free  State,  is  the  home  of  the 
worst  of  bigotry  and  intolerance;  the  Spanish  re- 
publics are  notoriously  despotisms  under  democratic 
titles;  America,  Australia,  Britain,  the  homes  of  our 
race,  are  as  yet  the  only  dwelling-spots  of  freedom. 

There  is  much  exaggeration  in  the  cry  that  self- 
government,  personal  independence,  and  true  manli- 
ness can  exist  only  where  the  snow  will  lie  upon  the 
ground,  that  cringing  slavishness  and  imbecile  sub- 
mission follow  the  palm-belt  round  the  world.  If  free- 
dom be  good  in  one  country,  it  is  good  in  all,  for  there 
is  nothing  in  its  essence  which  should  limit  it  in  time 
or  place :  the  only  question  that  is  open  for  debate  is 
whether  freedom — an  admitted  good — is  a  benefit 
which,  if  once  conferred  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the 
tropics,  will  be  maintained  by  them  against  invasion 
from  abroad  and  rebellion  from  within ;  if  it  be  given  bit 
by  bit,  each  step  being  taken  only  \vhen  public  opinion 
is  fully  prepared  for  its  acceptance,  there  can  be  no 
fear  that  freedom  will  ever  be  resigned  without  a 
struggle.  We  should  know  that  Sikhs,  Kandians, 
Scindians,  Marattas,  have  fought  bravely  enough  for 
national  independence  to  make  it  plain  that  they  will 
struggle  to  the  death  for  liberty  as  soon  as  they  can  be 
made  to  see  its  worth.  It  will  take  years  to  efface  the 
stain  of  a  couple  of  hundred  years  of  slavery  in  the 
negroes  of  America,  and  it  may  take  scores  of  years  to 


328  GEEATER  BRITAIN. 

heal  the  deeper  sores  of  Hindostan ;  but  history  teaches 
us  to  believe  that  the  time  will  come  when  the  Indians 
will  be  fit  for  freedom. 

Whether  the  future  advent  of  a  better  day  for  India 
be  a  fact  or  a  dream,  our  presence  in  the  country  is 
justifiable.  Were  we  to  quit  India,  we  must  leave  her 
to  Russia  or  to  herself.  If  to  Russia,  the  political 
shrewdness  and  commercial  blindness  of  the  Northern 
Power  would  combine  to  make  our  pocket  suiter  by 
loss  of  money  as  much  as  would  our  dignity  by  so  plain 
a  confession  of  our  impotence;  while  the  unhappy 
Indians  would  discover  that  there  exists  a  European 
nation  capable  of  surpassing  Eastern  tyrants  in  cor- 
ruption by  as  much  as  it  already  exceeds  them  in  dull 
weight  of  leaden  cruelty  and  oppression.  If  to  her- 
self, upextinguishable  anarchy  would  involve  our  East- 
ern trade  and  India's  happiness  in  a  hideous  and  lasting 
ruin. 

If  we  are  to  keep  the  country,  we  must  consider 
gravely  whether  it  be  possible  properly  to  administer 
its  affairs  upon  the  present  system — whether,  for  in- 
stance, the  best  supreme  government  for  an  Eastern 
empire  be  a  body  composed  of  a  chief  invariably  re- 
moved from  office  ~just  as  he  begins  to  understand  his 
duty,  and  a  council  of  worn-out  Indian  officers,  the 
whole  being  placed  in  the  remotest  corner  of  Western 
Europe,  for  the  sake  of  removing  the  government  from 
the  " pernicious  influence  of  local  prejudice." 

India  is  at  this  moment  governed  by  the  Indian 
Council  at  Westminster,  who  are  responsible  to  no- 
body. The  Secretary  of  State  is  responsible  to  Par- 
liament for  a  policy  which  he  cannot  control,  and  the 
Viceroy  is  a  head-clerk. 

India  can  be  governed  in  two  ways;  either  in  India 
or  in  London.  Under  the  former  plan,  we  should 


INDIA.  329 

leave  the  bureaucracy  in  India  independent,  preserving 
merely  some  slight  control  at  home — a  control  which 
should,  of  course,  be  purely  parliamentary  and  Eng- 
lish; under  the  other  plan — which  is  that  to  which  it 
is  to  be  hoped  the  people  of  England  will  command 
their  representatives  to  adhere — India  would  be  gov- 
erned from  London  by  the  English  nation,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  humanity  and  civilization.  Under  either  system, 
the  Indian  Council  in  London  would  be  valuable  as  an 
advising  body;  but  it  does  not  follow,  because  the 
Council  can  advise,  that  therefore  they  can  govern,  and 
to  delegate  executive  power  to  such  a  board  is  on  the 
face  of  it  absurd. 

Whatever  the  powers  to  be  granted  to  the  Indian 
Council,  it  is  clear  that  the  members  should  hold 
office  for  the  space  of  only  a  few  years.  So  rapid  is 
the  change  that  is  now  making  a  nation  out  of  what 
was  ten  years  ago  but  a  continent  inhabited  by  an 
agglomeration  of  distinct  tribes,  that  no  Anglo-Indian 
who  has  left  India  for  ten  years  is  competent  even  to 
advise  the  rulers,  much  less  himself  to  share  in  the 
ruling,  of  Hindostan.  The  objection  to  the  govern- 
ment of  India  by  the  Secretary  of  State  is,  that  the 
tenant  of  the  office  changes  frequently,  and  is  generally 
ignorant  of  native  feelings  and  of  Indian  affairs.  The 
difficulty,  however,  which  attends  the  introduction  of  a 
successful  plan  for  the  government  of  India  from  Lon- 
don is  far  from  being  irremovable,  while  the  objection 
to  the  paternal  government  of  India  by  a  Viceroy  is 
that  it  would  be  wholly  opposed  to  our  constitutional 
theories,  unfitted  to  introduce  into  our  Indian  system 
those  democratic  principles  which  we  have  for  ten 
years  been  striving  to  implant,  and  even  in  the  long 
run  dangerous  to  our  liberties  at  home. 

One  reason  why  the  Indian  officials  cry  out  against 
28* 


330  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

government  from  St.  James's  Park  is,  because  they 
deprecate  interference  with  the  Viceroy ;  but  were  the 
Council  abolished,  except  as  a  consultative  body,  and 
the  Indian  Secretaryship  of  State  made  a  permanent 
appointment,  it  is  probable  that  the  Viceroy  would  be 
relieved  from  that  continual  and  minute  interference 
with  his  acts  which  at  present  degrades  his  office  in 
native  eyes.  The  Viceroy  would  be  left  considerable 
power,  and  certainly  greater  power  than  he  has  at 
present,  by  the  Secretary  of  State; — that  which  is  es- 
sential is  merely,  that  the  power  of  control,  and  re- 
sponsible control,  should  lie  in  London.  The  Viceroy 
would,  in  practice,  exercise  the  executive  functions, 
under  the  control  of  a  Secretary  of  State,  advised  by 
an  experienced  Council  and  responsible  to  Parliament, 
and  we  should  possess  a  system  under  which  there 
would  be  that  conjunction  of  personal  responsibility 
and  of  skilled  advice  which  is  absolutely  required  for 
the  good  government  of  India. 

To  a  scheme  which  involves  the  government  of  In- 
dia from  at  home,  it  may  be  objected  that  India  can- 
not be  so  well  understood  in  London  as  in  Calcutta. 
So  far  from  this  being  the  case,  there  is  but  little  doubt 
among  those  who  best  know  the  India  of  to-day,  that 
while  men  in  Calcutta  understand  the  wants  of  the 
Bengalee,  and  men  in  Lahore  the  feelings  of  the  Sikh, 
India,  as  a  whole,  is  far  better  understood  in  England 
than  in  any  presidency  town. 

It  must  be  remembered,  that  with  India  within  a  day 
of  England  by  telegraph,  and  within  three  weeks  by 
steam,  the  old  autocratic  Governor-General  has  become 
impossible,  and  day  by  day  the  Secretary  of  State  in 
London  must  become  more  and  more  the  ruler  of 
India.  Were  the  Secretary  of  State  appointed  for  a 
term  of  years,  and  made  immovable  except  by  a  direct 


INDIA.  331 

vote  of  the  House  of  Commons,  no  fault  could  be 
found  with  the  results  of  the  inevitable  change :  as  it 
is,  however,  a  council  of  advice  will  hardly  be  suffi- 
cient to  prevent  gross  blundering  while  we  allow  India 
to  be  ruled  by  no  less  than  four  Secretaries  of  State  in 
a  single  year. 

The  chief  considerations  to  be  kept  in  view  in  the 
framing  of  a  system  of  government  for  India  are  briefly 
these : — a  sufficient  separation  of  the  two  countries  to 
prevent  the  clashing  of  the  democratic  and  paternal 
systems,  but,  at  the  same  time,  a  control  over  the 
Indian  administration  by  the  English  people  active 
enough  to  insure  the  progressive  amelioration  of  the 
former;  the  minor  points  to  be  borne  in  mind  are  that 
in  India  we  need  less  centralization,  in  London  more 
permanence,  and,  in  both,  increased  personal  responsi- 
bility. All  these  requirements  are  satisfied  by  the  plan 
proposed,  if  it  be  coupled  with  the  separation  of  the 
English  and  Indian  armies,  the  employment  of  natives 
in  our  service,  and  the  creation  of  new  governments 
for  the  Indus  territories  and  Assam.  Madras,  Bom- 
bay, Bengal,  Assam,  the  Central  Provinces,  Agra,  the 
Indus,  Oude,  and  Burmah  would  form  the  nine  presi- 
dencies, the  Viceroy  having  the  supreme  control  over 
our  officers  in  the  native  States,  and  not  only  should 
the  governors  of  the  last  seven  be  placed  upon  the 
same  footing  with  those  of  Madras  and  Bombay,  but 
all  the  local  governors  should  be  assisted  by  a  council 
of  ministers  who  should  necessarily  be  consulted,  but 
whose  advice  should  not  be  binding  on  the  governors. 
The  objections  that  are  raised  against  councils  do  not 
apply  to  councils  that  are  confined  to  the  giving  of  ad- 
vice, and  the  ministers  are  needed,  if  for  no  other  pur- 
pose, at  least  to  divide  the  labor  of  the  Governor,  for 
all  our  Indian  officials  are  at  present  overworked. 


332  GREATER  BRITAIN. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  the  suggestion  of  improve- 
ments in  the  details  of  Indian  government.  The 
statement  that  all  general  observations  upon  India  are 
necessarily  absurd  is  not  more  true  of  moral,  social, 
educational,  and  religious  affairs  than  of  mere  govern- 
mental matters:  "regulation  system"  and  "  non-regu- 
lation system;"  "permanent  settlement"  and  "thirty 
years'  settlement;"  native  participation  in  govern- 
ment, or  exclusion  of  natives — each  of  these  courses 
may  be  good  in  one  part  of  India  and  bad  in  another. 
On  the  whole,  however,  it  may  be  admitted  that  our 
Indian  government  is  the  best  example  of  a  well- 
administered  despotism,  on  a  large  scale,  existing  in 
the  world.  Its  one  great  fault  is  over-centralization ; 
for,  although  our  rule  in  India  must  needs  be  despotic, 
no  reason  can  be  shown  why  its  despotism  should  be 
minute. 

The  greatest  of  the  many  changes  in  progress  in  the 
East  is  that  India  is  being  made — that  a  country  is 
being  created  under  that  name  where  none  has  yet 
existed;  and  it  is  our  railroads,  our  annexations,  and 
above  all  our  centralizing  policy  that  are  doing  the 
work.  There  is  reason  to  fear  that  this  change  will 
be  hastened  by  the  extension  of  our  new  codes  to  the 
former  "non-regulation  provinces,"  and  by  govern- 
ment from  at  home,  where  India  is  looked  upon  as 
one  nation,  instead  of  from  Calcutta,  where  it  is  known 
to  be  still  composed  of  fifty ;  but  so  rapid  is  the  change, 
that  already  the  Calcutta  people  are  as  mistaken  in  at- 
tempting to  laugh  down  our  phrase  "the  people  of 
India,"  as  we  were  during  the  mutiny  when  we  be- 
lieved that  there  was  an  "India"  writhing  in  our 
clutches.  Whether  the  India  which  is  being  thus 
rapidly  built  up  by  our  own  hands  will  be  friendly 
to  us,  or  the  reverse,  depends  upon  ourselves.  The 


DEPENDENCIES.  333 

two  principles  upon  which  our  administration  of  the 
country  might  be  based  have  long  since  been  weighed 
against  each  other  by  the  English  people,  who,  reject- 
ing the  principle  of  a  holding  of  India  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  prestige  and  trade,  have  decided  that  we  are  to 
govern  India  in  the  interest  of  the  people  of  Hindostan. 
We  are  now  called  on  to  deliberate  once  more,  but 
this  time  upon  the  method  by  which  our  principle  is 
to  be  worked  out.  That  our  administration  is  already 
perfect  can  hardly  be  contended  so  long  as  no  officer 
not  very  high  in  our  Indian  service  dares  to  call  a  na- 
tive "friend."  The  first  of  all  our  cares  must  be  the 
social  treatment  of  the  people,  for  while  by  the  Queen's 
proclamation  the  natives  are  our  fellow-subjects,  they 
are  in  practice  not  yet  treated  as  our  fellow-men. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

DEPENDENCIES. 

WHEN,  on  my  way  home  to  England,  I  found  myself 
off  Mocha,  with  the  Abyssinian  highlands  in  sight,  and 
still  more  when  we  were  off  Massowah,  with  the  peaks 
of  Talanta  plainly  visible,  I  began  to  recall  the  accounts 
which  I  had  heard  at  Aden  of  the  proposed  British 
colony  on  the  Abyssinian  table-lands,  out  of  which  the 
home  government  has  since  been  frightened.  The 
question  of  the  desirability  or  the  reverse  of  such  a 
colony  raises  points  of  interest  on  which  it  would  be 
advisable  that  people  at  home  should  at  once  take  up 
a  line. 


334  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

As  it  has  never  been  assumed  that  Englishmen  can 
dwell  permanently  even  upon  high  hills  under  the 
equator,  the  proposition  for  European  colonization  or 
settlement  of  tropical  Africa  may  be  easily  dismissed, 
but  that  for  the  annexation  of  tropical  countries  for 
trade  purposes  remains.  It  has  hitherto  been  accepted 
as  a  general  principle  regulating  our  intercourse  with 
Eastern  nations,  that  we  have  a  moral  right  to  force 
the  dark-skinned  races  to  treat  us  in  the  same  fashion 
as  that  in  which  we  are  treated  by  our  European  neigh- 
bors. In  practice  we  even  now  go  much  further  than 
this,  and  inflict  the  blessings  of  Free  Trade  upon  the 
reluctant  Chinese  and  Japanese  at  the  cannon's  mouth. 
It  is  hard  to  find  any  law  but  that  of  might  whereby 
to  justify  our  dealings  with  Burmah,  China,  and 
Japan.  We  are  apt  to  wrap  ourselves  up  in  our  new- 
found national  morality,  and,  throwing  upon  our 
fathers  all  the  blame  of  the  ill  which  has  been  done 
in  India,  to  take  to  ourselves  credit  for  the  good ;  but 
it  is  obvious  to  any  one  who  watches  the  conduct  of 
our  admirals,  consuls,  and  traders  in  the  China  seas, 
that  it  is  inevitable  that  China  should  fall  to  us  as  India 
fell,  unless  there  should  be  a  singular  change  in  opinion 
at  home,  or  unless,  indeed,  the  Americans  should  be 
beforehand  with  us  in  the  matter.  To  say  this,  is  not 
to  settle  the  disputed  question  of  whether  in  the  pres- 
ent improved  state  of  feeling,  and  with  the  present 
control  exercised  over  our  Eastern  officials  by  a  disin- 
terested press  at  home,  and  an  interested  but  vigilant 
press  in  India  and  the  Eastern  ports,  government  of 
China  by  Britain  might  not  be  for  the  advantage  of 
the  Chinese  and  the  world,  but  it  is  at  least  open  to 
serious  doubt  whether  it  would  be  to  the  advantage  of 
Great  Britain.  Our  ruling  classes  are  already  at  least 
sufficiently  exposed  to  the  corrupting  influences  of 


DEPENDENCIES.  335 

power  for  us  to  hesitate  before  we  decide  that  the 
widening  of  the  national  mind  consequent  upon  the 
acquisition  of  the  government  of  China  would  out- 
weigh the  danger  of  a  spread  at  home  of  love  of  abso- 
lute authority,  and  indifference  to  human  happiness 
and  life.  The  Americans,  also,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will 
pause  before  they  expose  republicanism  to  the  shock 
that  would  be  caused  by  the  annexation  of  despotically- 
governed  States.  In  defending  the  Japanese  against 
our  assaults,  and  those  of  the  active  but  unsuccessful 
French,  they  may  unhappily  find,  as  we  have  often 
found,  that  protection  and  annexation  are  two  words 
for  the  same  thing. 

Although  the  disadvantages  are  more  evident  than 
the  advantages  of  the  annexation  for  commercial  pur- 
poses of  such  countries  as  Abyssinia,  China,  and  Japan, 
the  benefits  are  neither  few  nor  hard  to  find.  The 
abstract  injustice  of  annexation  cannot  be  said  to  exist 
in  the  cases  of  Afghanistan  and  Abyssinia,  as  the  sen- 
timent of  nationality  clearly  has  no  existence  there,  and 
as  the  worst  possible  form  of  British  government  is 
better  for  the  mass  of  the  people  than  the  best  con- 
ceivable rule  of  an  Abyssinian  chief.  The  dangers  of 
annexation  in  the  weakening  and  corrupting  of  our- 
selves may  not  unfairly  be  set  off  against  the  blessings 
of  annexation  to  the  people,  and  the  most  serious  ques- 
tion for  consideration  is  that  of  whether  dependencies 
can  be  said  "  to  pay."  Social  progress  is  necessary  to 
trade,  and  we  give  to  mankind  the  powerful  security 
of  self-interest  that  we  will  raise  the  condition  of  the 
people,  and,  by  means  of  improved  communications, 
open  the  door  to  civilization. 

It  may  be  objected  to  this  statement  that  our  exag- 
gerated conscientiousness  is  the  very  reason  why  our 
dependencies  commercially  are  failures,  and  why  it  is 


• 


336  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

useless  for  us  to  be  totaling  up  our  loss  and  profits 
while  we  willfully  throw  away  the  advantages  that  our 
energy  has  placed  in  our  hands.  If  India  paid  as  well 
as  Java,  it  may  be  shown,  we  should  be  receiving  from 
the  East  60  millions  sterling  a  year  for  the  support  of 
our  European  officials  in  Hindostan,  and  the  total  reve- 
nue of  India  would  be  200  or  250  millions,  of  which  80 
millions  would  be  clear  profit  for  our  use  in  England; 
in  other  words,  Indian  profits  would  relieve  us  from 
all  taxation  in  England,  and  leave  us  a  considerable 
and  increasing  margin  toward  the  abolition  of  the 
debt.  The  Dutch,  too,  tell  us  that  their  system  is  more 
agreeable  to  the  natives  than  oar  own  clumsy  though 
well-meant  efforts  for  the  improvement  of  their  condi- 
tion, which,  although  not  true,  is  far  too  near  the  truth 
to  allow  us  to  rest  in  our  complacency. 

The  Dutch  system  having  been  well  weighed  at 
home,  and  deliberately  rejected  by  the  English  people 
as  tending  to  the  degradation  of  the  natives,  the  ques- 
tion remains  how  far  dependencies  from  which  no 
profits  are  exacted  may  be  advantageously  retained  for 
mere  trade  purposes.  At  this  moment,  our  most  flour- 
ishing dependencies  do  not  bear  so  much  as  their  fair 
share  of  the  expenses  of  the  empire : — Ceylon  herself 
pays  only  the  nominal  and  not  the  real  cost  of  her  de- 
fense, and  Mauritius  costs  nominally  c£150,000  a  year, 
and  above  half  a  million  really  in  military  expenses,  of 
which  the  colony  is  ordered  to  pay  ,£45,000  and  grum- 
bles much  at  paying  it.  India  herself,  although  charged 
with  a  share  of  the  non-effective  expenses  of  our  army, 
escapes  scot-free  in  war-time,  and  it  is  to  be  remarked 
that  the  throwing  upon  her  of  a  small  portion  of  the 
cost  of  the  Abyssinian  war  was  defended  upon  every 
ground  except  the  true  one — namely,  tliat  as  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  empire  she  ought  to  bear  her  share  in 


• 


DEPENDENCIES.  337 

imperial  wars.  It  is  true  that,  to  make  the  constitu- 
tional doctrine  hold,  she  also  ought  to  be  consulted, 
and  that  we  have  no  possible  machinery  for  consulting 
her — a  consideration  which  of  itself  shows  our  Indian 
government  in  its  true  light. 

Whether,  indeed,  dependencies  pay  or  do  not  pay 
their  actual  cost,  their  retention  stands  on  a  wholly  dif- 
ferent footing  from  that  of  colonies.  Were  we  to  leave 
Australia  or  the  Cape,  we  should  continue  to  be  the 
chief  customers  of  those  countries :  were  we  to  leave 
India  or  Ceylon,  they  would  have  no  customers  at  all; 
for,  falling  into  anarchy,  they  would  cease  at  once  to 
export  their  goods  to  us  and  to  consume  our  manufac- 
tures. When  a  British  Governor  of  New  Zealand  wrote 
that  of  every  Maori  who  fell  in  war  with  us  it  might 
be  said  that,  "from  his  ignorance,  a  man  had  been  de- 
stroyed whom  a  few  months'  enlightenment  would 
have  rendered  a  valuable  consumer  of  British  manu- 
factured goods,"  he  only  set  forth  with  grotesque  sim- 
plicity considerations  which  weigh  with  us  all;  but 
while  the  advance  of  trade  may  continue  to  be  our 
chief  excuse,  it  need  not  be  our  sole  excuse  for  our 
Eastern  dealings  —  even  for  use  toward  ourselves. 
Without  repeating  that  which  I  have  said  with  respect 
to  India,  we  ma}T  especially  bear  in  mind  that,  although 
the  theory  has  suffered  from  exaggeration,  our  depend- 
encies still  form  a  nursery  of  statesmen  and  of  war- 
riors, and  that  we  should  irresistibly  fall  into  national 
sluggishness  of  thought,  were  it  not  for  the  world-wide 
interests  given  us  by  the  necessity  of  governing  and 
educating  the  inhabitants  of  so  vast  an  empire  as  our 
own. 

One  of  the  last  of  our  annexations  was  close  upon 
our  bow  as  we  passed  on  our  way  from  Aden  up  the 
Red  Sea.  The  French  are  always  angry  when  we 
VOL.  ii.  29 


338  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

seize  on  places  in  the  East,  but  it  is  hardly  wonderful 
that  they  should  have  been  perplexed  about  Perim. 
This  island  stands  in  the  narrowest  place  in  the  sea,  in 
the  middle  of  the  deep  water,  and  the  Suez  Canal 
being  a  French  work,  and  Egypt  under  French  influ- 
ence, our  possession  of  Perim  becomes  especially  un- 
pleasant to  our  neighbors.  Not  only  this,  but  the 
French  had  determined  themselves  to  seize  it,  and 
their  fleet,  bound  to  Perim,  put  in  to  Aden  to  coal. 
The  Governor  had  his  suspicions,  and,  having  asked 
the  French  admiral  to  dinner,  gave  him  unexception- 
able champagne.  The  old  gentleman  soon  began  to 
talk,  and  directly  he  mentioned  Perim,  the  Governor 
sent  a  pencil-note  to  the  harbor-master  to  delay  the 
coaling  of  the  ships,  and  one  to  the  commander  of  a 
gunboat  to  embark  as  many  artillerymen  and  guns  as 
he  could  get  on  board  in  two  hours,  and  sail  for  Perim. 
When  the  French  reached  the  anchorage  next  day, 
they  found  the  British  flag  flying,  and  a  great  show  of 
guns  in  position.  Whether  they  put  into  Aden  on  their 
way  back  to  France,  history  does  not  say. 

Perim  is  not  the  only  island  that  lies  directly  in  the 
shortest  course  for  ships,  nor  are  the  rocks  the  only 
dangers  of  the  Red  Sea.  One  night  about  nine  o'clock, 
when  we  were  off  the  port  of  Mecca,  I  was  sitting  on 
the  fo'castle,  right  forward,  almost  on  the  sprit,  to 
catch  what  breeze  we  made,  when  I  saw  two  country 
boats  about  150  yards  on  the  starboard  bow.  Our 
three  lights  were  so  bright  that  I  thought  we  must  be 
seen,  but  as  the  boats  came  on  across  our  bows,  I  gave 
a  shout,  which  was  instantly  followed  by  "  hard  a-port !" 
from  the  Chinaman  on  the  bridge,  and  by  a  hundred 
yells  from  the  suddenly  awakened  boatmen.  Our  helm 
luckily  enough  had  no  time  to  act  upon  the  ship.  I 
threw  myself  down  under  a  stancheon,  and  the  sail 


FRANCE  IN   THE  EAST.  339 

and  yard  of  the  leading  boat  fell  on  our  deck  close  to 
my  head,  and  the  boats  shot  past  us  amid  shouts  of 
"fire,"  caused  by  the  ringing  of  the  alarm-bell.  "When 
we  had  stopped  the  ship,  the  question  came — had  we 
sunk  the  boat  ?  We  at  once  piped  away  the  gig,  with 
a  Malay  crew,  and  sent  it  off  to  look  for  the  poor 
wretches — but  after  half  an  hour,  we  found  them  our- 
selves, and  found  them  safe  except  for  their  loss  of 
canvas  and  their  terrible  fright.  Our  pilot  questioned 
them  in  Arabic,  and  discovered  that  each  boat  had  on 
board  100  pilgrims ;  but  they  excused  themselves  for 
not  having  a  watch  or  light,  by  saying  that  they  had 
not  seen  us !  Between  rocks  and  pilgrim-boats,  Red 
Sea  navigation  is  hard  enough  for  steamers,  and  it  is 
easy  to  see  which  way  its  difficulties  will  cause  the 
scale  to  turn  when  the  question  lies  between  Euphrates 
Railway  and  Suez  Canal. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

FRANCE   IN   THE   EAST. 

IT  is  no  longer  possible  to  see  the  Pyramids  or  even 
Heliopolis  in  the  solitary  and  solemn  fashion  in  which 
they  should  be  approached.  English  " going  out"  and 
"coming  home"  are  there  at  all  days  and  hours,  and 
the  hundreds  of  Arabs  selling  German  coins  and 
mummies  of  English  manufacture  are  terribly  out  of 
place  upon  the  desert.  I  went  alone  to  see  the  Sphinx, 
and,  sitting  down  on  the  sand,  tried  my  best  to  read 
the  riddle  of  the  face,  and  to  look  through  the  rude 


340  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

carving  into  the  inner  mystery;  but  it  would  not  do, 
and  I  came  away  bitterly  disappointed.  In  this  modern 
democratic  railway-girt  world  of  ours,  the  ancient  has 
no  place;  the  huge  Pyramids  may  remain  forever,  but 
we  can  no  longer  read  them.  A  few  months  may  see 
a  cafS  chantant  at  their  base. 

Cairo  itself  is  no  pleasant  sight.  An  air  of  dirt  and 
degradation  hangs  over  the  whole  town,  and  clings  to 
its  people,  from  the  donkey-boys  and  comfit-sellers  to 
the  pipe-smoking  soldiers  and  the  money-changers  who 
squat  behind  their  trays.  The  wretched  fellaheen,  or 
Egyptian  peasantry,  are  apparently  the  most  miserable 
of  human  beings,  and  their  slouching  shamble  is  a 
sad  sight  after  the  superb  gait  of  the  Hindoos.  The 
slave-market  of  Cairo  has  done  its  work;  indeed,  it  is 
astonishing  that  the  English  should  content  themselves 
with  a  treaty  in  which  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
Egypt  is  decreed,  and  not  take  a  single  step  to 
secure  its  execution,  while  the  slave-market  in  Cairo 
continues  to  be  ail-but  open  to  the  passer.  That  the 
Egyptian  government  could  put  down  slavery  if  it 
had  the  will,  cannot  be  doubted  by  those  who  have 
witnessed  the  rapidity  with  which  its  officers  act  in 
visiting  doubtful  crimes  upon  the  wrong  men.  During 
my  week's  stay  in  Alexandria,  two  such  cases  came  to 
my  notice : — in  the  first,  one  of  my  fellow-passengers 
unwittingly  insulted  two  of  the  Albanian  police,  and 
was  shot  at  by  one  of  them  with  a  long  pistol.  A 
number  of  Englishmen,  gathering  from  the  public 
gaming-houses  on  the  great  square,  rescued  him,  and 
beat  on0  the  cavasses,  and  the  next  morning  marched 
down  to  their  Consulate  and  demanded  justice.  Our 
acting  Consul  went  straight  to  the  head  of  the  police, 
laid  the  case  before  him,  and  procured  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  man  who  shot  to  the  galleys  for  ten  years, 


FRANCE  IN  THE  EAST.  341 

while  the  policeman  who  had  looked  on  was  imme- 
diately bastinadoed  in  the  presence  of  the  passenger. 
The  other  case  was  one  of  robbery  at  a  desert  village, 
from  the  tent  of  an  English  traveler.  When  he  com- 
plained to  the  sheik,  the  order  was  given  to  bastinado 
the  head  men  and  hold  them  responsible  for  the  amount. 
The  head  men  in  turn  gave  the  stick  to  the  house- 
holders, and  claimed  the  sum  from  them ;  while  these 
bastinadoed  the  vagrants,  and  actually  obtained  from 
them  the  money.  Every  male  inhabitant  having  thus 
received  the  stick,  it  is  probable  that  the  actual  culprit 
was  reached,  if,  indeed,  he  lived  within  the  village. 
"  Stick-backsheesh"  is  a  great  institution  in  Egypt, 
but  the  Turks  are  not  far  behind.  When  the  British 
Consulate  at  Bussorah  was  attacked  by  thieves  some 
years  ago,  our  Consul  telegraphed  the  fact  to  the 
Pacha  of  Bagdad.  The  answer  came  at  once : — "  Basti- 
nado forty  men" — and  bastinadoed  they  were,  as  soon 
as  they  had  been  selected  at  random  from  the  popu- 
lation. 

Coming  to  Egypt  from  India,  the  Englishman  is 
inclined  to  believe  that,  while  our  Indian  government 
is  an  averagely  successful  despotism,  Egypt  is  mis- 
governed in  an  extraordinary  degree.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  however,  it  is  not  fair  to  the  King  of  Egypt  that 
we  should  compare  his  rule  with  ours  in  India,  and  it 
is  probable  that  his  government  is  not  on  the  whole 
worse  than  Eastern  despotisms  always  are.  Setting  up 
as  a  "civilized  ruler,"  the  King  of  Egypt  performs  the 
duties  of  his  position  by  buying  guns  which  he  uses 
in  putting  down  insurrections  which  he  has  fomented, 
and  yachts  for  which  he  has  no  use;  and  he  appears  to 
think  that  he  has  done  all  that  Peter  of  Russia  him- 
self could  have  accomplished,  when  he  sends  a  young 
Egyptian  to  Manchester  to  learn  the  cotton-trade,  or  to 

29* 


342  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

London  to  acquire  the  principles  of  foreign  commerce, 
and,  on  his  return  to  Alexandria,  sets  him  to  manage 
the  soap-works  or  to  conduct  the  viceregal  baud.  The 
aping  of  the  forms  of  "  Western  civilization,"  which  in 
Egypt  means  French  vice,  makes  the  Court  of  Alexan- 
dria look  worse  than  it  is: — we  expect  the  slave-market 
and  the  harem  in  the  East,  but  the  King  of  Egypt 
superadds  the  Trianon,  and  a  bad  imitation  of  Mabile. 

The  Court  influence  shows  itself  in  the  action  of 
the  people,  or  rather  the  influence  at  work  upon  the 
Court  is  pressing  also  upon  the  people.  For  knavery, 
no  place  can  touch  the  modern  Alexandria.  One 
word,  however,  is  far  from  describing  all  the  infamies 
of  the  city.  It  surpasses  Cologne  for  smells,  Benares 
for  pests,  Saratoga  for  gaming,  Paris  itself  for  vice. 
There  is  a  layer  of  French  "  civilization "  of  the 
worst  kind  over  the  semi-barbarism  of  Cairo;  but 
still  the  town  is  chiefly  Oriental.  Alexandria,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  completely  Europeanized,  and  has  a 
white  population  of  seventy  or  eighty  thousand.  The 
Arabs  are  kept  in  a  huge  village  outside  the  fortifica- 
tions, and  French  is  the  only  language  spoken  in  the 
shops  and  hotels.  Alexandria  is  a  French  town. 

It  is  evident  enough  that  the  Suez  Canal  scheme  has 
been  from  the  beginning  a  blind  for  the  occupation  of 
Egypt  by  France,  and  that,  however  interesting  to  the 
shareholders  may  be  the  question  of  its  physical  or 
commercial  success,  the  probabilities  of  failure  have 
had  but  little  weight  with  the  French  government. 
The  foundation  of  the  Messagerie  Company  with  na- 
tional capital,  to  carry  imaginary  mails,  secured  the 
preponderance  of  French  influence  in  the  towns  of 
Egypt,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  we  should  not  look 
upon  the  occupation  of  Saigon  itself  as  a  mere  blind. 

Of  the  temporary  success  of  the  French  policy  there 


FRANCE  IN   THE   EAST.  3 13 

can  be  no  doubt ;  the  English  railway-guards  have 
lately  been  dismissed  from  the  government  railway 
line,  and  a  huge  tricolor  floats  from  the  entrance  to 
the  new  docks  at  Suez,  while  a  still  more  gigantic  one 
waves  over  the  hotel ;  the  King  of  Egypt,  glad  to  find 
a  third  Power  which  he  can  play  off,  when  necessary, 
against  both  England  and  Russia,  takes  shares  in  the 
canal.  It  is  when  we  ask,  "  What  is  the  end  that  the 
French  have  in  view?"  that  we  find  it  strangely  small 
by  the  side  of  the  means.  The  French  of  the  present 
day  appear  to  have  no  foreign  policy,  unless  it  is  a  sort 
of  desire  to  extend  the  empire  of  their  language,  their 
dance-tunes,  and  their  fashions ;  and  the  natural  wish 
of  their  ruler  to  engage  in  no  enterprise  that  will  out- 
last his  life  prevents  their  having  any  such  permanent 
policy  as  that  of  Russia  or  the  United  States.  An 
Egyptian  Pacha  hardly  put  the  truth  too  strongly 
when  he  said,  "  There  is  nothing  permanent  about 
France  except  Mabile." 

The  Suez  Canal  is  being  pushed  with  vigor,  although 
the  labor  of  the  hundreds  of  Greek  and  Italian  navvies 
is  very  different  to  that  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  im- 
pressed fellaheen.  The  withdrawal  from  the  Com- 
pany of  the  forced  labor  of  the  peasants  has  demon- 
strated that  the  King  is  at  heart  not  well  disposed 
toward  the  scheme,  for  the  remonstrances  of  England 
have  never  prevented  the  employment  of  slave  labor 
upon  wrorks  out  of  which  there  was  money  to  be  made 
for  the  viceregal  purse.  The  difficulty  of  clearing  and 
keeping  clear  the  channel  at  Port  Said,  at  the  Medi- 
terranean end,  is  well  known  to  the  Pacha  and  his 
engineers : — it  is  not  difficult,  indeed,  to  cut  through 
the  bar,  nor  impossible  to  keep  the  cutting  open,  but 
the  effect  of  the  great  piers  will  merely  be  to  push  the 
Nile  silt  farther  seaward,  and  again  and  again  new 


344  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

bars  will  form  in  front  of  the  canal.  That  the  canal 
is  physically  possible  no  one  doubts,  but  it  is  hard  to 
believe  that  it  can  pay.  Even  if  we  suppose,  more- 
over, that  the  canal  will  prove  a  complete  success,  the 
French  government  will  only  find  that  it  has  spent 
millions  upon  digging  a  canal  for  England's  use. 

The  neutralization  of  Egypt  has  lately  been  pro- 
posed by  writers  of  the  Corntist  school,  but  to  what 
end  is  far  from  clear.  "The  interests  of  civilization" 
are  the  pretext,  but,  when  summoned  by  a  Comtist, 
"civilization"  and  "humanity"  generally  appear  in  a 
French  shape.  Were  we  to  be  attacked  in  India  by 
the  French  or  Russians,  no  neutralization  would  pre- 
vent our  sending  our  troops  to  India  by  the  shortest 
road,  and  fighting  wherever  we  thought  best.  If  we 
were  not  so  attacked,  neutralization,  as  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  would  be  a  useless  ceremony.  If  France 
goes  beyond  her  customary  meddlesomeness  and  set- 
tles down  in  Egypt,  we  shall  evidently  have  to  dislodge 
her,  but  to  neutralize  the  country  would  be  to  settle 
her  there  ourselves.  It  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  the 
position  of  France  in  the  East  is  connected  with  the 
claim  put  forth  by  her  to  the  moral  leadership  of  the 
world.  The  "  chief  power  of  Europe"  and  "  leader  of 
Christendom"  must  needs  be  impatient  of  the  domi- 
nance of  America  in  the  Pacific  and  of  Britain  in  the 
East,  and  seeks  by  successes  on  the  side  of  India  to 
bury  the  memories  of  Mexico.  One  of  the  hundred 
"missions  of  France,"  one  of  the  thousand  "  Imperial 
ideas,"  is  the  "  regeneration  of  the  East."  Treacherous 
England  is  to  be  confined  to  her  single  island,  and  bar- 
barous Russia  to  be  shut  up  in  the  Siberian  snows. 
England  may  be  left  to  answer  for  herself,  but  before 
we  surrender  even  Russia  to  the  Comtist  priests,  we 
should  remember  that,  just  as  the  Russian  despotism 


FRANCE  IN   THE  EAST.  345 

is  dangerous  to  the  world  from  the  stupidity  of  its  bar- 
barism, so  the  French  democracy  is  dangerous  through 
its  feverish  sympathies,  blundering  "humanity,"  and 
unlimited  ambition. 

The  present  reaction  against  exaggerated  national- 
ism is  in  itself  a  sign  that  our  national  mind  is  in  a 
healthy  state ;  but,  while  we  distrust  nationalism  be- 
cause it  is  illogical  and  narrow,  we  must  remember 
that  "cosmopolitanism"  has  been  made  the  excuse  for 
childish  absurdities,  and  a  cloak  for  desperate  schemes. 
Love  of  race,  among  the  English,  rests  upon  a  firmer 
base  than  either  love  of  mankind  or  love  of  Britain, 
for  it  reposes  upon  a  subsoil  of  things  known :  the 
ascertained  virtues  and  powers  of  the  English  people. 
For  nations  such  as  France  and  Spain,  with  few  cares 
outside  their  European  territories,  national  fields  for 
action  are,  perhaps,  too  narrow,  and  the  interests  of 
even  the  vast  territories  inhabited  by  the  English  race 
may,  in  a  less  degree,  be  too  small  for  English  thought ; 
but  there  is  India, — and  the  responsibility  of  the  abso- 
lute government  of  a  quarter  of  the  human  race  is  no 
small  thing.  If  we  strive  to  advance  ourselves  in  the 
love  of  truth,  to  act  justly  towards  Ireland,  and  to 
govern  India  aright,  we  shall  have  enough  of  work  to 
occupy  us  for  many  years  to  come,  and  shall  leave  a 
greater  name  in  history  than  if  we  concerned  ourselves 
with  settling  the  affairs  of  Poland.  If  we  need  a  wider 
range  for  our  sympathies  than  that  which  even  India 
will  supply,  we  may  find  it  in  our  friendships  with  the 
other  sections  of  the  race;  and  if,  unhappily,  one  re- 
sult of  the  present  awakening, of  England  to  free  life 
should  be  a  return  of  the  desire  to  meddle  in  the  affairs 
of  other  folk,  we  shall  find  a  better  outlet  for  our  en- 
ergy in  aiding  our  Teutonic  brethren  in  their  struggle 
for  unity  than  in  assisting  Imperial  France  to  spread 
Ben6itonisme  through  the  world. 


346  GREATER   BRITAIN. 

We  cannot,  if  we  would,  be  indifferent  spectators  of 
the  extravagances  of  France :  if  she  is  at  present  weak 
in  the  East,  she  is  strong  at  home.  At  this  moment, 
we  are  spending  ten  or  fifteen  millions  a  year  in  order 
that  we  may  be  equal  with  her  in  military  force,  and 
we  hang  upon  the  words  of  her  ruler  to  know  whether 
we  are  to  have  peace  or  war.  Although  it  may  not  be 
wise  for  us  to  declare  that  this  humiliating  spectacle 
shall  shortly  have  an  end,  it  is  at  least  advisable  that 
we  should  refrain  from  aiding  the  French  in  their  pro- 
fessed endeavors  to  obtain  for  other  peoples  liberties 
which  they  are  incapable  of  preserving  for  themselves. 

If  the  English  race  has  a  " mission"  in  the  world, 
it  is  the  making  it  impossible  that  the  peace  of  man- 
kind on  earth  should  depend  upon  the  will  of  a  single 
man. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

THE    ENGLISH. 

IN  America  we  have  seen  the  struggle  of  the  dear 
races  against  the  cheap — the  endeavors  of  the  English 
to  hold  their  own  against  the  Irish  and  Chinese.  In 
New  Zealand,  we  found  the  stronger  and  more  ener- 
getic race  pushing  from  the  earth  the  shrewd  and  labo- 
rious descendants  of  the  Asian  Malays ;  in  Australia, 
the  English  triumphant,  and  the  cheaper  races  excluded 
from  the  soil  not  by  distance  merely,  but  by  arbitrary 
legislation;  in  India,  we  saw  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem of  the  officering  of  the  cheaper  by  the  dearer  race. 
-Everywhere  we  have  found  that  the  difficulties  which 


THE  ENGLISH.  347 

impede  the  progress  to  universal  dominion  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  lie  in  the  conflict  with  the  cheaper  races. 
The  result  of  our  survey  is  such  as  to  give  us  reason 
for  the  belief  that  race  distinctions  will  long  continue, 
that  miscegenation  will  go  but  little  way  toward  blend- 
ing races  ;  that  the  dearer  are,  on  the  whole,  likely  to 
destroy  the  cheaper  peoples,  and  that  Saxondom  will 
rise  triumphant  from  the  doubtful  struggle. 

The  countries  ruled  by  a  race  whose  very  scum  and 
outcasts  have  founded  empires  in  every  portion  of  the 
globe,  even  now  consist  of  9J  millions  of  square  miles, 
and  contain  a  population  of  300  millions  of  people. 
Their  surface  is  five  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  em- 
pire of  Darius,  and  four  and  a  half  times  as  large  as 
the  Roman  Empire  at  its  greatest  extent.  It  is  no  ex- 
aggeration to  say  that  in  power  the  English  countries 
would  be  more  than  a  match  for  the  remaining  nations 
of  the  world,  whom  in  the  intelligence  of  their  people 
and  the  extent  and  wealth  of  their  dominions  they  al- 
ready considerably  surpass.  Russia  gains  ground  stead- 
ily, we  are  told,  but  so  do  we.  If  we  take  maps  of  the 
English-governed  countries  and  of  the  Russian  coun- 
tries of  fifty  years  ago,  and  compare  them  with  the 
English  and  Russian  countries  of  to-day,  we  find  that 
the  Saxon  has  outstripped  the  Muscovite  in  conquest 
and  in  colonization.  The  extensions  of  the  United 
States  alone  are  equal  to  all  those  of  Russia.  Chili, 
La  Plata,  and  Peru  must  eventually  become  English; 
the  Red  Indian  race  that  now  occupies  those  countries 
cannot  stand  against  our  colonists;  and  the  future  of 
the  table-lands  of  Africa  and  that  of  Japan  and  of  China 
is  as  clear.  Even  in  the  tropical  plains,  the  negroes 
alone  seem  able  to  withstand  us.  ~No  possible  series 
of  events  can  prevent  the  English  race  itself  in  1970 
numbering  300  millions  of  beings — of  one  national 


348  GREATER    BRITAIN. 

character  and  one  tongue.  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Rus- 
sia become  pigmies  by  the  side  of  such  a  people. 

Many  who  are  well  aware  of  the  power  of  the  Eng- 
lish nations  are  nevertheless  disposed  to  believe  that 
our  own  is  morally,  as  well  as  physically,  the  least 
powerful  of  the  sections  of  the  race,  or,  in  other  words, 
that  we  are  overshadowed  by  America  and  Australia. 
The  rise  to  power  of  our  southern  colonies  is,  however, 
distant,  and  an  alliance  between  ourselves  and  America 
is  still  one  to  be  made  on  equal  terms.  Although  we 
are  forced  to  contemplate  the  speedy  loss  of  our  manu- 
facturing supremacy  as  coal  becomes  cheaper  in 
America  and  dearer  in  Old  England,  we  have  never- 
theless as  much  to  bestow  on  America  as  she  has  to 
confer  on  us.  The  possession  of  India  offers  to  our- 
selves that  element  of  vastness  of  dominion  which,  in 
this  age,  is  needed  to  secure  width  of  thought  and  no- 
bility of  purpose;  but  to  the  English  race  our  posses- 
sion of  India,  of  the  coasts  of  Africa,  and  of  the  ports  of 
China  offers  the  possibility  of  planting  free  institutions 
among  the  dark-skinned  races  of  the  world. 

The  ultimate  future  of  any  one  section  of  our  race, 
however,  is  of  little  moment  by  the  side  of  its  triumph 
as  a  whole,  but  the  power  of  English  laws  and  English 
principles  of  government  is  not  merely  an  English 
question — its  continuance  is  essential  to  the  freedom 
of  mankind. 

Steaming  up  from  Alexandria  along  the  coasts  of 
Crete  and  Arcadia,  and  through  the  Ionian  Archipel- 
ago, I  reached  Brindisi,  and  thence  passed  on  through 
Milan  toward  home.  This  is  the  route  that  our  Indian 
mails  should  take  until  the  Euphrates  road  is  made. 


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FROM  THE  HON.  HORACE  MANN,  LL.D., 
Late  President  of  Antioch  College. 

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